■'^\: 


-.^j  H, 


PROPORTIONAL 

REPRESENTATION 


INCLUDING  ITS   RELATION 
TO  THE 


Initiative  and   Referendum 


BY 

ALFRED  CRIDGE 


With  Appendix  by  Robert  Tyson 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH    OF  THE  AUTHOR 


iiemorial  Sbtttnn 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

THE   STAR  PRESS-JAMES   H.  BARRY 

1904 


<s 


CO 


on 


O'l 


1 


^pcidisynAJiy  jyty£i^^caM  e-nj^d^^^. 


'?0 


PREFATORY. 


So-called  "winged  words"  or  phrases  are  like 
coins  traveling  from  hand  to  hand  without  being 
examined  for  their  full  intrinsic  value  until  they 
find  some  critically  disposed  i3erson  who  weighs, 
scrutinizes,  tests  them,  and  to  the  general  surprise 
finds  deficiencies  either  in  weight,  quality  or  genu- 
ineness.   "Winged  words"  or  phrases  usually  ex- 
press either  an  empirical  half-tinith  or  a  sentiment ; 
and  mostly  in  the  latter  fonn  they  are  readily  ac- 
cepted  without   further   examination,   travel   lei- 
surely from  mouth  to  mouth,  are  profusely  propa- 
gated in  newspapers,  magazines  and  books,  and, 
whether  true  or  not,  are  popularly  accepted  as 
truth.    To  expose  their  fallacy  is  neither  an  easy, 
nor  a  very  profitable  undertaking,  as  they  often.    C/^M^t^ 
strike  a  so-called  patriotic  feeling,  a  popular  vein,-    / 
a  long-cherished  habit  of  thought,  or  half  a  truth, 
and  therefore  are  easily  swallowed  without  exam- ; 
ination,  while  the  real  truth  is  somewhat  hidden,! 
veiled,  and  not  easily  detected. 

Such  phrases  are:  "The  people  will  have  as 
good  or  as  bad  a  government  as  they  deserve;" 
"In  our  republic  the  people  rule,  and  have  it  in 
their  power  to  alter  or  repeal  laws  at  pleasure;" 
or,  "If  there  is  corruption  in  public  affairs,  it  can 
only  be  because  the  people  are  corrupt." 


Are  these  expressions  true!  Or  is  it  true,  as 
Mr.  J.  W.  Sullivan  says  (Initiative  and  Referen- 
dum in  Switzeiland/N.  Y.,  1893,  note);  "The 
county,  State  and  Federal  goveniments  (referring 
to  the  United  States)  are  not  democracies ?" 

It  is  not  necessary  to  use  the  word  "democracy" 
in  the  narrower  sense,  as  denoting  the  govern- 
mental x)ower  exercised  by  the  people  directly,  but 
in  the  wider  one— that  is,  a  government  resting 
ultimately  in  the  people,  who  act  by  delegating 
their  powers  to  elected  representatives — in  order 
to  find  that  there  is  no  truth  in  the  sentiment  con- 
veyed by  those  oft-repeated  phrases,  and  to  prove 
that  a  real  democratic  government  is  a  thing  to  be 
striven  for. 


Proportional   Representation 

IIMCLLDIIVG  ITS  RELATION  TO  THE 

rNiTiATivE  ^^D  referendum. 


CHAPTER   I. 

Kepeesentation. — A  Priori  Demonstratioit. 

If  a  representative  government  is  the  nearest 
approach  to  a  democracy,  it  must  necessarily  fol- 
low that  the  representative  body  chosen  by  the 
people  ought  to  represent  the  collective  opinions, 
interests,  aspirations  and  desires  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple, and  therefore  not  only  of  the  majority  but  of 
the  minority  as  well,  when  the  latter  is  large 
enough  to  have  a  just  claim  for  representation.^ 
To  use  the  words  of  the  historian  and  statesman 
Guizot  (History  and  Origin  of  Representative 
Government,  London,  1852) :  *'The  end  of  repre- 
sentative government  is  to  bring  into  proximity 
and  contact  the  chief  interests  and  various  opin- 
ions which  divide  society  and  dispute  for  suprem- 
acy, in  the  just  confidence  that  from  their  debates 
will  result  the  recognition  and  adoption  of  the  laws 
and  measures   which  are  most  suitable  for  the 


country  in  general.  This  end  is  only  attained  by 
the  triumph  of  the  true  majority-  the  minority 
being  constantly  listened  to  with  respect." 

It  is  true  enough  that  water  can  never  rise  high- 
er than  its  source,  nor  can  it  be  expected  that  pop- 
ular government  will  be,  or  can  be,  more  vii-tu- 
ously,  intelligently  and  wisely  conducted  than  in 
proportion  as  the  people,  selecting  its  rulers,  pos- 
sess the  qualities  of  virtue,  intelligence  and  wis- 
dom.    But  the  question  here  is  not,  AVill  the  peo- 
ple, under  the  present  systems  of  popular  govern- 
ment, falsely  so-called,  select  their  rulers  or  rep- 
resentatives up  to  or  above  the  general  standard 
of  the  qualities  just  mentioned  t     The  question  is, 
rather,  Under  the  system  of  elections  as  carried 
on  in  most  of  the    so-called    "popular"    govern- 
ments (except  approximately  in  the  Swiss  Cantons 
and  cities),  is  it  generally  in  the  power  of  the  peo- 
ple to  elect  representatives  possessing  high  quali- 
ties, or  at  least  qualities  approximate  to  the  stand- 
ard generally  prevalent  among  the  people  who  are 
supposed  to  elect  them?     And  if  not,  why  not! 
In  other  words,  is  it  ordinarily  possible,  under  the 
existing  system  of  elections,  to  get  an  approxi- 
mately exact  expression  of  the  will  of  the  people, 
as  it  is  usually  claimed?     Or,  stating  the  same 
question  differently,  Does  the  majority  rule,  and 
have  the  people  power  to  alter  and  rej^eal  laws  at 
pleasure,  or  do  we  rather  labor  under  a  pleasant 
delusion  in  this  respect?     Let  us  see. 

A  Priori  Demonstration. 

It  can  be  demonstrated,  aside  from  any  actual 
experience,  that  in  three  single-member  districts, 

8 


minorities  from  one-third  down  (the  proportion 
growing  less  with  the  increased  number  of  par- 
ties) can  return  a  majority  of  members  in  elective 
bodies.     Look  at  this  diagram : 


District  A.  District  B.  District  C.  Totals. 


2.000  Repubs.         2,000  Repubs.  4,000  Rcpubs. 

1,000  Dems.  1,000  Dcms.  3,000  D ems.        5,000  Dems. 

Repub.  elected      Repub.  elected      Dem.  elected      Minority  rule 

Suppose  the  above  diagram  to  represent  a  State 
with  three  electoral  districts,  each  district  electing 
one  representative  by  a  majority  of  votes.  Then 
district  '*A"  elects  one  Republican  by  2,000  Re- 
I)ublicaii  votes  to  1,000  Democratic.  District ' '  B  " 
does  the  same.  District  ''C"  elects  a  Democrat 
by  a  unanimous  vote  of  3,000.  Total  vote  of  the 
State,  4,000  Republicans  and  5,000  Democrats.  In 
this  case  the  4,000  Republicans  elect  two  Repre- 
sentatives and  the  5,000  Democrats  only  one. 

In  this  supposed  case  the  parties  happen  to  be 
in  such  proportions  in  each  district  that  a  minority 
returns  a  majority  of  representatives.  Does  the 
majority  rule?  Is  it  in  their  power  to  alter  or  re- 
peal laws  at  pleasure,  or  with  ease  1 

Let  us  now  take  a  State  with  seven  districts  (A, 
B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  G)  as  in  the  following  diagram, 
each  district  electing  one  representative  and  only 
two  parties  competing  for  the  seats : 


A  B  C  D  E  F  G 

4,000  R.    4,000  R.    4,000  R.    4,000  R. 

3,000  D.    3,000  D.    3,000  D.    3,000  D.    7.000  D.    7,000  D.    7,000  D. 


Here  we  have: 

District  "A"  elects  one  Republican,  having 
])ollcd  4,000  Kepublican  and  3,000  Democratic 
votes.     Districts  * ' B, "  "  C "  and  ' *  D "  the  same. 

District  "E"  elects  one  Democrat,  having  polled 
no  Kepublican  votes  and  7,000  Democratic  votes. 
Districts  *'P"'  and  "G"  the  same.  Which  makes 
four  Ite publican  representatives  elected  by  a  total 
vote  of  16,000  Kepublican  votes,  and  three  Demo- 
cratic representatives  elected  by  a  total  of  33,000 
Democratic  votes. 

But  to  attempt  to  represent  all  grades  of  opin- 
ions by  means  of  two  parties  is  as  absurd  as  it 
Avould  be  to  undertake  to  fit  every  one  by  two  sizes 
and  makes  of  coats,  hats  and  shoes.  In  propor- 
tion as  people  thin]v  for  themselves,  the  need  is  felt 
for  a  third,  a  fourth,  even  a  fifth  party.  To  show 
how  little  chance  a  new  party  has  to  get  any  repre- 
sentation by  our  present  mode  of  election,  the  next 
diagram  exemplifies  an  election  with  a  third  con- 
testing party : 

A  B  C  D  E  F  G 

3,000  R.    r>,n(iO  R.    3,0m  R.    3.0O0  R. 

2,000  D.    2,000  D.    2,000  D.    2.000  D.     4,000  D.    4,000  D.   4.000  D. 

2,000  P.    2.000  P.    2,000  P.    2,000  P.    3.000  P.     3,000  P.    3,000  P. 

R.elec'd  R.  elcc'd  R.elec'd  R.elec'd  D.  elcc'd  D.  clec'd  D.  elec'd 

111  this  case: 

The  ] 2,000  Kepublicans  elect  four  representa- 
tives. 

The  20,000  Democrats  elect  three  representa- 
tives. 

10 


The  17,000  Populists  elect  kone. 

Yet  the  Populists  polled  5,000  more  votes  than 
the  Kepublicans  in  the  whole  State,  and  tlie  Repub- 
licans elected  four  representatives  out  of  seven, 
the  Populists  electing  none  at  all ;  while  the  Demo- 
crats, polling  8,000  votes  more  than  their  more 
fortunate  Kepublican  fellow  citizens,  have  to  be 
satisfied  with  one  "representative"  less.  Less 
than  one-fourtli  of  the  voters  thus  secure  a  ma- 
jority of  representatives. 

Were  there  four,  five  or  six  parties  (and  even 
six  would  but  inadequately  cover  the  great  variety 
of  thought  on  public  questions,  the  minority  of 
voters  which  might  thus  secure  a  majority  of  the 
elected  body  would  necessarily  become  less  and 
less,  so  that  with  five  parties,  8,000  Republicans — 
less  than  a  sixth  of  the  whole  number — could  get 
four  representatives;  12,000  Democrats — 50  per 
cent  more  voters — but  three;  and  29,000  of  three 
other  parties— more  than  the  Republicans  and 
Democrats  together — would  be  entirely  unrep- 
resented. This  could  be  proved  in  detail  did  space 
permit. 

Thus,  the  more  intelligent  the  voters  become  the 
less  representation  they  are  apt  to  get  if  they  vote 
in  accordance  with  their  convictions.  In  fact  the 
intelligent  voter  has  often  in  practice  no  choice 
but  to  vote  with  one  of  two  large  parties,  or  with 
a  party  holding  tlie  balance  of  power  in  his  dis- 
trict, and  thus  helping  by  chance  to  elect  a  third 
party  or  keep  out  the  nominee  of  the  party  most 
obnoxious  to  him.    But  this  is  merely   choosing 

11 


tlie  less  of  two  evils,  not  choosing  a  representative 
according  to  the  views  and  wishes  of  the  voter. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  results  shown  by  the  pre- 
ceding examples  and  diagi'ams  can  only  be  of  aca- 
demic value,  and  that  the  figures  and  numerical  po- 
sitions of  parties  therein  are  arbitrarily  selected 
and  can  have  no  existence  in  practice.  It  will, 
tlierefore,  be  necessary  in  our  next  chapter  to  ad- 
duce some  examples  of  actual  elections  and  see  if 
the  practice  proves  the  tlieor}';  that  is,  to  show 
that  in  practice  the  majority  do  not  rule,  that  the 
people  are  not  properly  represented,  and  that  they 
have  not  the  power  to  change  the  laws  at  their  will. 


12 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  Posteriori  Demonstration. 

For  the  practical  demonstration  of  the  work- 
ings of  our  "representative"  system,  delusively 
so-called,  we  will  use  no  examples  derived  from 
any  country  hut  our  own,  although  there  would  be 
no  lack  of  material;  for  to  use  foreign  examples 
would  require  more  space  than  the  limits  of  this 
pamphlet  will  permit,  and  therefore  such  examples 
must  be  left  to  those  in  each  country  who  are  suffi- 
ciently interested  in  just  and  eifective  representa- 
tion to  scrutinize  the  modes  of  election  in  vogue 
and  their  results.  Here  we  can  only  present  some 
demonstrations  of  actual  elections  of  Supervisors 
and  Boards  of  Education  in  San  Francisco,  of 
State  Legislators,  and  of  the  Federal  House  of 
Pepresentatives. 

The  Board  of  Supei'visors  in  San  Francisco 
(substantially  the  same  as  City  Councils  else- 
where) were  on  November  8, 1896,  elected  at  large, 
each  voter  voting  for  twelve  candidates,  that  being 
the  number  constituting  the  Board,  and  the  candi- 
date in  each  ward  receiving  the  highest  vote  all 
o^^er  the  city  was  declared  elected.  On  this  occasion 
the  entire  seventy-three  candidates  received  708,- 
516  votes,  the  tv/elve  successful  ones  received  263,- 
683  votes,  being  but  37.215  per  cent — less  than 
three-eighths  of  the  whole.  The  vote  for  all  the 
candidates  in  each  ward  ranged  from  57,369  to  59,- 
909  votes.    The  twelve  successful  candidates  each 

13 


received  from  17,294  to  25,488  votes,  or  from  29  per 
cent  to  nearly  43  jDer  cent  of  the  total  vote.  We 
subjoin  the  exact  vote  for  each  candidate  and  the 
percentage  which  this  represents  to  the  total  vote 
in  each  ward: 


Vote  of  Successful      Perc.  to  Total 
Ward.         Total  Vote.  Candidate.  of  W^ard. 


1 

59,909 

25,488 

43 

2 

59,782 

23,735 

40 

3 

58,059 

22.829 

39 

4 

59,005 

23.494 

40 

5 

57,369 

23,924 

42 

6 

58,986 

20,121 

34 

7 

59,405 

24,083 

41 

8 

59.030 

20.500 

35 

9 

59,423 

21.353 

3ft 

10 

59,278 

20,158 

34 

11 

58,940 

20,694 

35 

12 

59,330 

17.294 

29 

Total...  . 

....708.516 

263,683 

Ordinarily,  any  figure  above  50  per  cent  of  the 
total  would  be  called  a  majority;  but  in  political 
aritlunetic,  as  the  preceding  fig-ures  demonstrate, 
37.215  per  cent— the  proportion  of  the  total  vote 
of  all  the  successful  candidates — must  suffice;  and 
as  the  imagination  is  verj-  elastic,  it  will  not  be 
any  more  difficult  to  stretch  it  from  29  per  cent 
(the  i)ropoi-tion  of  the  vote  which  elected  the 
lucky  member  from  the  Twelfth  AVard)  than  from 
about  43  i>er  cent  (the  proportion  received  by  the 
member  elected  from  the  First  Ward.) 

The  Board  of  Education  Elected  in  189G. 

This  Board  is  elected  strictly  at  large,  the  twelve 
candidates  receiving  the  largest  number  of  vot^s 

14 


being  elected.  The  total  vote  cast  for  all  the 
seventy  aspirants  was  630,633,  of  which  the  suc- 
cessful candidates  received  198,393,  or  31.46  per 
cent,  being  less  than  one-third.  To  ascertain,  as 
nearly  as  possible,  the  relative  strength  of  each 
candidate,  we  divide  630,633  by  12,  giving  a  quo- 
tient of  52,555,  that  being  about  the  total  number 
of  voters.  Taking  this  as  a  basis.  We  find  the  num- 
ber of  votes  for  each  candidate  and  the  percentage 
each  received  of  the  total  vote  to  be  as  follows : 

Candidate.  Vote.        Percent. 

Benj.  Armer 15,400  29 

C.    L.    Barrington 19.138  36 

T.   R.   Carew 15,978  30 

G.  I.   Drucker 17,107  32— 

J.    E.    Halsted 18,171  35— 

E.  L.  Head 15,057  29— 

C.  A.  Bartlett 14,994  28— 

Th.  H.   Burns 16,292  31— 

W.  A.   Denham 18,080  34— 

E.    J.    Gallagher 14,592  28— 

Phillip    Hammond 16,254  31— 

S.   F.   Waller 17,329  33— 

(The  dash  ( — )  after  the  percentage  denotes  something 
less  than  the  percentage  specified.) 

In  this  case  the  imagination  has  to  receive  an- 
other twist  by  tailing  it  for  granted  that  28  per 
cent  must  suffice  for  a  majority ;  36  per  cent  repre- 
sents the  highest  »proportion  of  the  total  average 
vote  cast. 

The  partisans  of  existing  political  arithmetic 
will  here  reply  that  these  Boards  were  both  elected 
at  large,  and  therefore  we  should  return  to  single- 
member  districts.     Let  us  now  see  how  that  works. 

Of  the  nine  Senatorial  districts  into  which  San 

15 


f  Vancisco  is  divided,  five  elected  eacli  one  Senator 
in  1896  by  the  following  vote,  the  first  column 
being  tlie  district  uunibor,  the  second  the  total  vote 
polled  tJierein,  the  third  the  vote  received  by  the 
successful  candidate,  and  the  fourth  the  percent- 
age, a  dash  after  the  latter  indicating  that  it  was 
rather  less  than  the  fisrnre  given: 


17 

5,491 

2,245 

41— 

19 

5,921 

2,272 

38 

21 

7,780 

3,218 

41 

23 

7,021 

1,670 

24 

25 

4,810 

1,857 

39— 

Thus  the  successful  candidates  received  only  11,- 
262  votes,  being  38.56  per  cent  of  the  total  31,023 
votes.  This  is  again  rough  on  the  political  imag- 
ination ;  but  when  we  take  the  districts  separately, 
the  twist  on  the  imagination  has  to  be  further  in- 
tensified, and  old  notions  of  arithmetic  must  be 
discarded,  so  that  we  may  gulp  down  as  an  article 
of  political  faith,  the  belief  of  which  is  in- 
dispensable to  salvation,  that  24  per  cent  of 
any  number  is  a  majority,  and  as  such  is  entitled 
to  rule;  for  such  was  the  percentage  of  the  total 
vote  received  by  the  Senator  from  the  Twenty- 
third,  the  highest  percentage  being  41  in  the 
Twenty-first.  The  gentleman  in  the  Twenty- third 
District  was  elected  by  1,670  votes,  while  the  Sen- 
ator from  the  Twenty-first  is  backed  by  3,218 
votes,  defeating  his  opponent,  who  received  2,108, 
or  438  more  than  the  candidate  elected  from  the 
Twenty-third  District. 

Now  let  us  see  how  it  was  with  the  Assembly- 

16 


men  from  the  city.  Assembly  districts  mimbered 
from  28  to  45  inclusive,  making  eighteen  in  all, 
voted  as  follows : 


Per  Cent 

Total 

Vote  of 

Effective  Vote 

Vote 

Elected  Candidate. 

to  Total  Vote. 

2,618 

925 

85 

2,900 

1,070 

37— 

2,786 

885 

32— 

3,184 

1,080 

34— 

2,471 

791 

32 

3,099 

1,026 

33 

3,865 

1,315 

34 

2,782 

1.238 

45— 

4,068 

1,826 

45 

4,182 

2,049 

45 

3,588 

1,280 

49 

3,902 

1,811 

34— 

3,761 

2,205 

59— 

3,695 

1,442 

89 

2,850 

1,212 

43— 

2,518 

6,698 

28— 

2,778 

1,167 

42 

1,988 

708 

36 

56,986 

22,179 

This  table  shows  that  bnt  one  Assemblyman  out 
of  eighteen  received  a  majority  of  votes  in  his  dis- 
trict, in  which  there  was  but  one  contestant,  the 
vote  of  the  others  ranging  from  28  to  45  ]Der  cent 
of  the  total  vote  in  their  respective  districts,  while 
in  the  Senatorial  districts  the  range  was  from  .24 
to  41. 

It  may  now  be  claimed  that  imagination  is 
only  thus  taxed  in  Sunny  California  by  gerry- 
mandering. As  before  stated,  any  one  can  test  the 
elections  in  his  own  State,  county  or  city. 

We  will  now  examine  the  figures  of  the  election 


of  November,  1896,  for  tlie  House  of  Kepresenta- 
tives,  by  parties.  There  we  find  tliat  tlie  Repub- 
licans polled  0,677,100  votes,  being  49.61  i^er  cent 
of  the  total  vote  of  13,457,500 ;  the  Democrats  and 
Fusionists,  5,976,945,  or  44.41  per  cent;  Populists 
and  silver  men,  562,938,  or  4.18  per  cent;  National 
Democrats,  Prohibitionists,  Independents,  etc., 
240,517,  or  .78  per  cent,  which  accounts  for  99.98 
per  cent  of  the  total.  Now  compare  this  percent- 
age of  votes  as  cast  by  eaeh  party  with  the  per- 
centage of  seats  secured.  The  49.61  per  cent  of 
Republican  votes  captured  204  seats,  or  57.30  per 
cent  of  the  whole;  44.41  per  cent  of 
Democrats  got  135  seats,  being  37.92  per 
cent;  4.18  per  cent  of  Populists  got  4.77  per 
cent  of  the  seats  (17) ;  and  the  1.78  of  others  se- 
cured nothing.  This  accounts  for  356  seats. 
(There  are  357  members;  but  these  figures  are 
from  the  New  York  World's  Almanac  of  1897, 
which  showed  the  condition  of  the  first  session, 
when  one  seat  from  ^Missouri  was  vacant.  After- 
wards two  Republicans  were  added  to  the  House). 


^Misrepresented  and  Unrepresented. 

Comparing  the  total  of  all  votes  for  all  the  can- 
didates with  the  total  vote  received  by  the  suc- 
cessful ones,  it  is  found  that  only  7,784,968  voters 
are  represented,  out  of  13,457,500  who  ought  all 
to  be  represented;  hence  5,672,532  voters  are  en- 
tirely without  real  representation,  or  misrepre- 
sented by  persons  against  whom  they  voted.    Of 


18 


those  caaididates  elected,  the  vote  by  parties  was  as 
follows : 

Party.  Total  Vote  of  Party.     Percentage  of  Vote. 

Republicans    204  5,038,367  37.43 

Democrats 120) 

Fusionists    15)  2,290,259  17.00 

Populists  and  Silver.    17  456,342  3.39 

356  7,784,968        57.84 

5,672,532         42.16  Unrepresented 

It  is  right  that  in  any  legislative  body  a  major- 
ity of  its  members  should  have  power  to  decide 
any  question,  provided  such  majority  is  backed 
by  a  majority  of  voters.  But  here  we  find  the 
Eepublican  majority  of  204  representing  but  37.43 
per  cent  of  the  voters — not  much  over  one-third — 
able  to  pass  or  defeat  any  measure.  Politics  is  re- 
markable for  acrobatic  mental  and  logical  feats; 
but  we  have  yet  to  hear  from  its  exponents  the  ex- 
plicit claim  that  37.43  per  cejit  is  a  majority. 

Votes  on  Actual  Measures  Analyzed. 

To  realize  the  concrete  meaning  of  this  so-called 
majority  rule  we  have  analyzed  the  votes  on  cer- 
tain measures  in  order  to  find  the  percentage  of 
voters  therein  represented,  thus  heading  off  the 
claim  that  unequal  as  is  the  numerical  representa- 
tion it  equalizes  itself  in  the  vote  on  particular 
questions.  In  this  analysis  no  note  is  taken  of  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  any  particular  measure,  the 
only  subject  in  view  being:  To  what  extent  are 
the  voters  represented  ? 

The  bill  to  buy  bonds  was  defeated  in  the  House 

19 


by  333  yeas  to  182  nays.  These  182,  who  defeated 
the  bill,  received  an  aggregate  of  4,383,619  votes, 
being  but  32.57  per  cent,  of  the  total  of  13,457,500 
votes  i)olled  at  an  election  for  all  the  candidates. 

The  Bankruptcy  Bill  was  passed  by  159  to  124, 
the  159  having  received  3,835,291,  or  only  28.50 
per  cent,  of  the  preceding  total. 

(Notes.  Not  having  been  able  to  ascertain  the 
votes  received  by  Burleigh  of  Maine,  Bontelle  of 
Illinois,  Lawrence  of  Massachusetts,  Showalter  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  Driggs  of  New  York,  we  substi- 
tuted the  vote  received  by  their  predecessors,  the 
persons  named  having  been  elected  to  fill  vacancies. 
Kansas  elected  one  of  its  eight  and  Pennsylvania 
two  of  its  thirty  representatives  at  large.  We  did 
not  consider  these  members  or  their  vote  at  all. 
To  each  of  the  two  representatives  elected  at  large 
from  Washington  and  South  Dakota  we  appor- 
tioned one-half  of  the  popular  vote  in  that  State.) 

Great  Variations  in  District  Votes. 

As  the  vote  of  any  representative  counts  for 
just  as  much  as  any  other  as  to  any  enacted  or  pro- 
posed law,  one  would  expect  that  each  would  rep- 
resent a  constituency  approximate  in  the  number 
of  voters  to  every  other  constituency.  It  is  quite 
otherwise.  Not  considering  the  seven  members 
elected  at  large  from  several  States  (Gough  of 
Pennsylvania  receiving  711,246  votes ^.  we  find 
one  representative  from  Mississi])pi  elected  by 
3,069  votes;  one  from  South  Carolina  by  4,052; 
one  from  Nevada  by  6,069;  one  from  Pennsylvania 
by  59,147;  one  from  Georgia  by  1,269.    The  man 

20 


from  Pennsylvania  received  nearly  47  times  as 
many  votes  as  the  man  from  Georgia. 

Nor  are  these  gross  inequalities  between  mem- 
bers from  different  States. 

One  of  Pennsylvania's  representatives  received 
59,147  votes ;  another  11,655. 

One  representative  from  Illinois  had  51,582 
votes,  and  another  got  in  with  10,488. 

Disproportionate  Representation  of  Parties. 

This  chance  system,  or  rather  want  of  system, 
is  equally  idiotic  and  unjust  in  its  representation 
of  parties.  In  California  128,941  Kepublicans 
elected  3  representatives,  29,565  Democrats  elect- 
ed 1,  56,881  Fusionists  elected  1,  while  the  lucky 
44,837  Populists  elected  2. 

In  Missouri  304,135  Eepublican  voters  elected 
only  3  representatives,  while  339,136  Democrats 
elected  all  the  other  eleven,  one  seat  remaining  va- 
cant. 

In  Nebraska  the  Democrats  and  Populists  (Fu- 
sion), with  112,135  voters,  elected  4  representa- 
tives, while  100,156  Republicans  secured  but  two. 

In  Kentucky  210,802  Republicans  secured  but  4 
representatives,  while  the  lesser  number  of  204,- 
137  Democrats  got  7. 

In  Mainland  135,423  Republicans  secured  the 
entire  delegation  of  6,  the  Democrats  casting  106,- 
747  votes  without  securing  one. 

In  New  York  807,856  Republicans  elected  29 
members,  and  493,295  Democrats  only  5. 

In  Ohio  542,682  Republicans  elected  15,  and  the 

21 


Democrats  and  Fusionists  cast  473,986  votes  and 
elected  6. 

In  Tennessee  116,565  Kepublican  voters  elected 
but  2  members,  while  156,771  Democrats  elected  8. 

In  Texas  102,884  Kepublican  voters  elected  only 
one  member,  while  135,609  Populists  electe"d 
nothing,  and  287,429  Democrats  elected  12.  Thus, 
on  the  average,  it  took  less  than  one-fourth  as 
many  Democrats  to  elect  a  member  as  it  did  Re- 
publicans, while  it  required  five  and  one-half  times 
as  many  Populists  to  elect  nothing  as  Democrats 
to  elect  one. 

In  IVest  Virginia  102,442  Republican  voters 
elected  the  entire  delegation  of  4,  while  91,376 
Democrats  had  to  "throw  away  their  votes." 

In  Wisconsin  150,675  Democrats  failed  to  elect 
a  single  representative,  while  238,937  Republicans 
secured  the  entire  10  members. 

What  Logically  Follows? 

Justice  Brown,  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  in  an  address  before  the  Law  Department 
of  Yale  University,  remarked  as  follows : 

''The  great  unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of 
universal  suffrage  is  not  that  it  insures  a  better  or 
a  purer  government,  but  that  all  must  be  contented 
with  a  government  in  which  all  have  an  equal 
voice. ' ' 

The  ])receding  figures  nmst  surely  convince  any 
American  citizen  capable  of  reasoning  that  the 
sources  of  his  contentment  lie  more  in  this  belief 
or  faith  of  having  an  equal  voice  in  his  govern- 
ment than  in  the  facts.     Is  it  still  necessaiy,  after 

22 


the  preceding  expositions,  to  show  that  it  is  an  in- 
sult aggravated  by  sarcasm  to  proclaim  that  under 
the  present  electoral  system  "the  people  rule  and 
have  it  in  their  power  to  alter  or  repeal  laws  at 
pleasure,"  or  that  "the  people  must  be  corrupt"  if 
governmental  affairs  are  often  in  that  condition, 
and  that  "the  people  can,  in  general,  have  as  good 
a  government  as  they  deserve"? 


23 


CHAPTER  III. 

Reform  Parties  and  Advocates  of  Progress. 

Whoever  carefully  considers  the  results  as 
above  exemplified  need  look  no  further  for  the 
cause  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  effecting  any  re- 
fonn  requiring  political  action,  even  aside  from 
the  great  impediments  of  conflicting  interests,  pre- 
judices and,  above  all,  constitutions,  these  last  be- 
ing amendable  only  with  very  great  and  long-con- 
tinued effoi-t,  or  not  at  all,  and  being  therefore 
looked  up  to  with  envy  by  the  privileged  classes  of 
Great  Britain. 

But  even  aside  from  constitutional  restrictions, 
it  is  clear  that  any  new  party  scattered  widely  all 
over  the  country,  has  but  little  opportunity,  except 
in  times  of  great  commotion,  to  make  any  percep- 
tible impression  on  the  law.  All  new  parties  outside 
the  pale  of  the  two  old-established,  thoroughly  or- 
ganized and  wealthy  parties  (Democrats  and  Re- 
publicans in  this  country,  and  Consen^atives  and 
Liberals  in  Great  Britain),  must  content  them- 
selves V7i\h  making  bargains  or  fusions  with  one 
of  these  ''grand  old  parties,"  or  exacting  conces- 
sions from  them,  through  holding  an  uncertain 
''balance  of  power,"  by  means  of  threats  or  ca- 
.iolerv\  The  power  exercised  by  these  old  parties 
in  this  country  often  borders  on  despotism,  which 
has  not  escaped  the  keen  obser\'ation  of  foreign 
^\Titers,  occasioning  John  Stuart  ]\Iin  to  remark, 

24 


in    ''Considerations    on   Representative  Govern- 
ment, ' '  Harper,  1862,  page  166 : 

"In  the  United  States,  where  the  numerical  ma- 
jority have  long  been  in  fnll  possession  of  collect- 
ive despotism,  they  would  probably  be  as  loath  to 
part  with  it  as  a  single  despot  or  an  aristocracy." 
On  page  146,  of  the  same  work,  he  says : 
"In  a  really  equal  democracy,  every  or  any  sec- 
tion would  be  represented  not  disproportionately, 
but  proportionately. ' ' 

Direct  Legislation. 

Many  persons,  seeing  that  legislation  by  so- 
called  "representatives"  is  "omnipotent  for  evil, 
powerless  for  good,"  and  unacquainted  with  the 
fact  that  we  have  no  really  "representative"  gov- 
ernment at  all  (as  hereinbefore  proved)  have  con- 
cluded that  the  only  remedy  is  for  the  people 
themselves  to  make  the  laws  directly.  Mr.  W.  H. 
T.  Wakefield,  in  the  AVichita,  Kansas,  ' '  Bayonet, ' ' 
thus  indicates  the  insufficiency  of  the  Initiative  and 
Keferendum,  though  they  unquestionably  have 
valuable  preliminary  uses: 

' '  Ours  is  and  must  necessarily  continue  to  be,  in 
the  main,  a  representative  government,  even  with 
the  fullest  measure  of  Direct  Legislation.  Eepre- 
sentatives  must  draft  and  submit  the  laws  to  be 
voted  upon;  and  a  legislature  composed  of  the 
lickspittles  of  special  privilege  bosses  could  and 
would  so  frame  and  submit  laws  in  the  interest  of 
the  masses  so  as  to  'keep  the  word  of  promise  to 
the  ear  and  break  it  to  the  hope' — ostensibly  com- 
ply with  the  Referendum  law,  but  really  submit  a 

25 


worthless  law  which  could  not  stand  an  hour  in  a 
court,  or  would  fail  to  accom])lish  the  purpose  in- 
tended, if  it  did.  j\rany  laws  are  necessarily  of  a 
technical  nature  (such  as  cases  of  criminal  proce- 
dure and  medical  ,jurisi)rudence)  u]>on  which  the 
whole  electorate  cannot  vote  intelligently,  and 
very  few  would  vote  at  all.  Unless  there  is  a 
great  change  for  the  better  in  the  demand  for  reg- 
ulating everything  by  statute,  it  will  be  possible 
to  take  a  Referendum  only  on  a  few  of  the  more 
important  laws,  as  is  done  in  Switzerland,  where 
not  one  in  forty  of  the  laws  are  submitted  to  the 
popular  vote.  Even  did  we  admit  the  possibility 
of  the  people  voting— and  voting  intelligently — 
upon  each  of  the  twenty  thousand  laws  annually 
enacted  in  the  United  States,  yet  we  must  elect 
men  to  frame  them  and  to  administer  them,  which 
requires  an  effective  ballot." 

In  Switzerland,  under  the  Initiative,  the  general 
proposition  is  first  submitted  to  the  people,  and 
if  carried  (that  is,  in  the  Cantons),  the  Council  of 
State,  composed  usually  of  seven  members,  draws 
up  a  bill  accordingly;  but  there  is  no  correspond- 
ing body  in  any  of  the  United  States,  and  were 
such  a  body  to  be  formed,  and  elected  on  the  cur- 
rent misrepresentation  plan,  it  could  not  here 
be  depended  upon,  for  reasons  similar  to  those 
stated  by  Mr.  Wakefield.  In  Switzerland,  the 
Council  of  State  draws  up  a  bill  such  as  required, 
and  again  the  people  vote  upon  it.  So  laborious 
is  the  ]3rocess  that  it  is  rarely  used;  especially  is 
this  rarity  noticeable  in  the  seven  or  eight  Can- 
tons which  use  an  imperfect  form  of  Proportional 
Representation,    representing    only    parties.      It 

2G 


works  well  there  because  parties,  however  diver- 
gent in  opinion,  are  honestly  so ;  but  it  would  not 
work  well  here. 

The  current  idea  of  American  advocates  of  the 
Initiative,  however,  seems  to  be  that  a  proposed 
law  would  be  submitted  complete  the  first  and  only 
time.  But  were  this  done,  excepting  on  some 
great  questions  generally  understood  and  easily 
framed  into  law,  the  drawback  to  which  Mr.  Wake- 
field refers  of  "keeping  the  word  of  proiiiise  to 
the  ear  and  breaking  it  to  the  hope,"  would  be 
even  more  apparent  for  obvious  reasons.  And  this 
is  also  indicated  by  the  histoiy  of  "labor"  legis- 
lation, enacted  in  obedience  to  popular  demand, 
but  so  carelessly,  perhaps  pur]30sely,  framed  as  to, 
in  most  cases,  work  results  entirely  different  from 
those  intended,  become  nugatory,  or  fail,  for  good 
reasons,  to  pass  the  ordeal  of  the  judiciary.  A 
noted  example  is  the  use  of  injunctions  to  sup- 
press labor  combinations  under  a  law  prohibiting 
proceedings  "in  restraint  of  trade,"  supposed  to 
have  been  enacted  in  the  interest  of  labor ! 

The  Imperative  Mandate. 

This  has  a  very  imposing  sound,  but  it  is  en- 
tirely destitute  of  practicality.  It  seems  to  be  as- 
sumed that  it  has  long  been  in  active  service  in 
Switzerland,  but  my  correspondents  there  say  it 
never  was  used,  and  for  the  last  twenty  years  has 
not  even  been  talked  about,  excepting  that  in  one  or 
two  Cantons  an  entire  legislature  can  be  recalled, 
but,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  that  power  has  never  been 

27 


exercised.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  advocated 
in  France  many  years  ago,  but  never  carried  into 
effect. 

The  proposition  is  that  when  a  representative  is 
believed  by  a  cei*tain  percentage  of  his  constitu- 
ency to  be  corrupt  or  incompetent,  they  can  peti- 
tion for  his  recall,  and  then  the  entire  constituency 
pass  upon  it,  and  if  a  majority  so  determine,  he  va- 
cates his  position,  and  another  person  is  elected  in 
his  place,  as  in  case  of  death  or  disability.  This 
would  be  incompatible  with  Proportional  Kepre- 
sentation  in  the  first  place,  because  when  (say)  ten 
persons  were  elected  proportionately  by  a  consti- 
tuency of  10,000,  and  it  was  desired  to  recall  one 
of  them  who  had  received  1,000  votes,  and  there- 
fore was  elected  by  only  one-tenth  of  that  constit- 
uency to  represent  them,  and  not  the  other  9,000, 
the  effect  would  be  entirely  undone  if  tlie  whole, 
or  any  part,  of  that  9,000  could  override  the  1,000, 
and  it  would  be  impossible  in  a  secret  ballot  to  pick 
out  the  1,000  voters  who  had  elected  him  from  the 
others. 

But  even  under  the  present  form  of  so-called 
**  representation, "  the  '*  Imperative  Mandate" 
would  be  so  costly  and  cumbersome  as  to  virtually 
be  impracticable,  as  it  would  require  two  special 
elections,  one  to  determine  whether  the  represen- 
tative should  be  recalled  or  not,  and  another  to 
elect  his  successor,  should  his  recall  be  determined 
upon.  This  would  require,  for  due  notice,  several 
months  altogether.  And  it  would  be  fully  as  easy 
to  get  up  a  petition  against  a  good  man  as  a  bad 
one;  because  any  corrupt  persons,  having  objects 

28 


to  subserve  by  worrying  a  representative  who  op- 
posed their  projects  could  hire  scores  of  agents  to 
get  up  the  petitions,  which  the  faithful  represen- 
tative could  not  afford  to  do.  Thus  all  officials, 
both  executive  and  legislative,  would  have  more 
work  and  more  worry  to  keep  their  positions  than 
to  attend  to  their  duties. 

Especially  ridiculous  would  this  be  in  the  case 
of  a  California  Assemblyman,  elected  for  two 
years,  but  sitting,  as  a  legislator,  for  only  ninety 
days  or  so  (the  limit  of  pay  is  sixty  days),  in  two 
years.  The  session  would  be  over  long  before  the 
''Imperative  Mandate"  could  be  carried  out  with 
any  fair  degree  of  notice. 

It  is  often  found  difficult  now  to  induce  compe- 
tent, honest  and  well-known  men  to  stand  for  legis- 
lative and  other  offices;  but  with  the  prospect  of 
almost  continuous  insult  and  odium  which  would 
be  involved,  or  at  least  expected,  under  the  "Im- 
perative Mandate,"  no  high-minded  and  self-re- 
specting person  could  be  induced  to  become  a  can- 
didate. In  other  words,  it  would  intensify  all  our 
present  political  evils,  brilliant  as  it  appears  in 
theory  to  superficial  obser\"ers. 


29 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Remedy  Historically  Sketched. 

Proportional  Representation  has  no  long  history 
behind  it,  but  a  brilliant  future  before  it.  It  had, 
like  all  reforms,  its  prophets,  seers  and  pioneers, 
who  saw  the  faults  of  the  majority  system,  its 
vicious  divisions,  in  boroughs,  districts  and  wards, 
and  the  concomitant  evils,  which  they  essayed  to 
correct  as  well  as  they  knew. 

In  1747  Sir  T.  Dashwood  claimed  for  the  people 
the  right  to  be  freely  and  fairly  represented.  In 
1766  Lord  Chatham  took  up  the  thread,  holding 
that  the  representation  as  there  existing  could  not 
endure  for  a  century,  and  it  did  not.  George 
Wilkes  introduced  a  scheme  of  redistribution.  In 
1780  the  Duke  of  Richmond  stated  in  Parliament 
that  6,000  voters  returned  a  clear  majority  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  introduced  a  bill  which 
is  said  (Putnam's  Magazine,  June,  1870)  to  have 
contained  a  clause  looking  to  the  representation  of 
minorities.  It  was  voted  down  without  division. 
In  1785  Pitt  introduced  a  bill  for  re-distribution, 
which,  however,  included  compensation  to  the 
owners  of  illegitimate  and  wrongful  privileges; 
and  that  also  was  voted  down. 

In  the  United  States  a  seemingly  backward,  but 
really  forward  step  was  taken  in  1811  by  the  in- 
troduction of  the  * '  geriymander, "  named  after 
Elbridge  Gerry,  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  to 
whom  is  accredited  the  device  of  so  lajang  out  dis- 

30 


tricts  in  irregular  form,  lia\dng  much  greater 
dimensions  one  way  than  another,  that  a  minority 
party  could  secure  a  majority  of  the  representa- 
tion. This  was  extensively  practiced  for  many 
years  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  it  was  long  famil- 
iarly known  that  any  legislature  in  any  closely  bal- 
anced State  could  so  district  it  as  to  secure  a  de- 
cided majority  for  the  party  which  was  in  the  ma- 
jority in  the  legislature,  even  when  in  the  minor- 
ity in  the  State. 

At  this  time  (1811)  the  two  foremost  advocates 
of  Proportional  Representation  in  England  had 
attained  their  fifth  year,  one  being  the  successful 
London  barrister,  Thomas  Hare,  whose  treatise 
on  the  election  of  representatives  was  published  in 

1859,  though  two  years  earlier  he  had  called  atten- 
tion thereto  in  an  article  entitled  "The  Machinery 
of  Representation."  The  other  was  the  philoso- 
phic economist  and  philanthropist,  John  Stuart 
Mill,  who,  by  his  wide  influence  as  a  thinker  and 
by  his  elaborate  and  favorable  review  of  Mr. 
Hare's  book  in  1862,  was  largely  instrumental  in 
calling  attention  to  it.  He  also  unsuccessfully  ad- 
vocated the  same  in  Parliament  in  1867.  He  formu- 
lated one  of  the  most  characteristic  expressions  in 
its  favor  when  he  said  that  it ' '  lifts  the  cloud  which 
hangs  over  our  civilization." 

Miss  Catherine  H.  Spence,  then  and  now  of  Ade- 
laide, South  Australia,  has  however,  slightly  ante- 
dated Mr.  Mill  by  the  publication  in  1861,  of  a  24- 
page  pamphlet  entitled  "A  Plea  for  Pure  Demo- 
cracy, ' '  in  advocacy  of  the  Hare  system,  in  which 
she  quotes  from  Frazer's  Magazine  for  February, 

1860,  part  of  an  article  by  Hare,  on  "Representa- 

31 


tion  in  Practice  and  Theorjs"  mentioning  a  x^aper 
from  Mr.  Rowland  Hill  (subsequently  the  great 
originator  of  penny  postage),  suggesting  a  plan 
for  the  nmnicii)al  govei-nment  of  South  Australia, 
he  making  the  suggestion  as  Secretary  of  the  Col- 
onization Connnissioners.  This  plan  was  to  elect 
Town  Councils  by  "voluntary  classification  of 
electors  into  as  many  equal  quorums  as  there  are 
members  to  be  elected,  and  that  each  of  these  who 
can  agree  upon  an  unanimous  vote  shall  return 
one  member."  Miss  Spence  adds  that  this  scheme 
was  actually  carried  out  in  the  tirst  election  for 
Adelaide  in  1840,  two  councilors  Ijeing  returned  by 
two  quoinims,  one  of  which  consisted  of  the  work- 
men in  Borrow  &  Goodiar's  yard  who  so  elected 
their  foreman,  and  another  councilor  Was  simi- 
larly chosen  by  a  quorum  of  citizens. 

Great  Britain,  however,  during  all  this  intei-val, 
has  made  no  further  progress  along  these  lines 
than  to  adopt  the  cumulative  vote— a  crude  recog- 
nition of  the  principle  of  proportional  representa- 
tion— in  the  election  of  school  boards  in  1870. 
On  the  European  continent  somewhat  more  prog- 
ress has  been  made. 

In  1846  Victor  Considerant,  a  disciple  of  Fourier, 
advocated  a  ])roportional  system  before  the  Grand 
Council  of  Geneva,  akin  to  one  advocated  twelve 
years  previously  by  Fourier  himself.  In  1864  Pro- 
fessor Ernest  Naville,  of  Geneva,  Switzerland, 
tried  to  arouse  the  people  to  the  dangers  of  vio- 
lence threatened  by  exclusive  majority  elections, 
advocating  ])ropoi-tional  representation  as  a  rem- 
edy; but  it  was  not  until  several  persons  were 
killed  in  the  Canton  of  Ticino  in  the  fall  of  1890, 

32 


as  a  direct  result  of  the  old  system,  that,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  urging  of  the  Federal  government, 
that  Canton  enacted  Proportional  Representation, 
under  which  the  first  election  was  held  on  March 
10,  1892.  Neuchatel  speedily  followed,  holding  its 
first  election  on  May  lOtli  of  that  year.  Geneva  and 
some  three  or  four  other  Cantons,  also  some  mu- 
niciijalities,  fell  into  line  soon  afterward. 

In  Denmark  the  statesman  and  mathematician, 
Andrae,  introduced  in  1855  (independently  of  Mr. 
Hare,  with  whom  he  had  then  not  been  in  any  com- 
munication) a  system  identical  in  principle,  for  the 
election  of  a  part  of  the  Legislature,  which  became 
law  in  1856,  and  has  been  used  ever  since ;  but  in  so 
indirect  a  manner  and  for  so  few  of  the  members 
that  it  amounts  to  nothing  practically,  though  the 
method  works  without  error. 

In  Belgium  there  has  been  a  vigorous  agitation 
kept  up  through  the  monthly  magazine  ''La  Rep- 
resentation Proportionnelle, "  and  otherwise,  for 
some  twenty  years,  with  the  result  of  the  D  'Hondt 
system  being  used  in  municipal  elections,  and  the 
subject  of  its  introduction  in  elections  for  the  na- 
tional legislature  is  a  prominent  issue  in  Parlia- 
ment, apparently  nearing  success. 

In  ISTorway  a  modified  form  of  a  method  pro- 
posed by  Prof.  Hagenbach-Bischoff  is  used  for 
some  local  purposes. 

In  Brazil  a  system  of  Proportional  Representa- 
tion, apparently  wanting  in  completeness  of  detail, 
is  used  in  electing  representatives  to  the  national 
legislature  from  Rio  Janeiro,  and  is  also  used  for 
one  of  the  provincial  legislatures. 

Before  proceeding  further  we  may  note  that  the 

33 


Hon.  Tom  Ij.  Johnson  of  Ohio  introduced  a  bill  in 
the  54th  Congress  for  the  purpose  of  electing  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  differ- 
ent States  by  a  somewhat  similar  but  simpler  sys- 
tem, and  at  least  as  effective,  but  open  to  the  same 
objection  of  giving  party  machinery  too  much 
play. 

A  scrutine  di  lista  system  was  established  in 
I'rance  in  1885,  but  was  repealed  in  1887,  when  the 
reaction  against  Boulanger  set  in,  whose  tempo- 
rary success,  though,  was  less  the  effect  of  the  list 
system  than  the  result  of  by-elections,  which  per- 
mitted him  to  run  in  several  districts.  The  latter 
law  was  also  repealed  in  the  same  year. 

In  January,  1897,  the  first  election  under  the 
Hare  system  was  held  for  the  return  of  six  mem- 
bers to  the  parliament  of  Tasmania  from  the  city 
of  Hobaii,  and  four  from  Launceston,  with  such 
marked  success  that  in  1899  a  bill  introduced  by 
Premier  Braddon,  extending  the  system  to  the  en- 
tire island-province,  passed  the  lower  house,  though 
it  is  not  likely  to  pass  the  very  conservative,  highly 
propertied  upper  house  this  year.  The  subject  is 
vigorously  agitated  in  the  parliament  of  South 
Australia,  and  has  been  in  those  of  Victoria  and 
New  Zealand.  No  plan  but  the  Hare  system,  by  far 
the  best  and  simplest  of  any,  is  there  considered. 
It  is  known  in  South  Australia  as  the  *'Hare- 
Spence"  system.  Miss  Spence  having  simplified  it 
veiy  much.  In  Tasmania  it  is  known  as  the 
*' Clark-Hare"  system,  because  of  the  improve- 
ments of  Mr.  Justice  Clark. 

In  the  United  States  Mr.  Thomas  Gilpin  in  1844 
published  a  book  entitled  ''Representation  of  Mi- 

34 


norities."  In  1871  Mr.  Simon  Sterne,  counsellor- 
at-law,  New  York,  published  the  substance  of  Mr. 
Hare's  book  in  a  somewhat  condensed  form,  under 
the  title  of  ' '  Representative  Government  and  Per- 
sonal Riepreseutation. ' ' 

The  Cumulative  Vote  and  the  Limited  Vote. 

The  cumulative  vote  was  suggested  in  1854  in 
London  by  Mr.  James  G.  Marshall  and  has  long 
been  used  in  Great  Britain  for  electing  school 
boards.  It  is  best  defined  in  the  Constitution  of 
California,  Art.  XII,  Sec.  12,  as  follows : 

"In  all  elections  for  directors  or  managers  of 
corporations  every  shareholder  shall  have  a  right 
to  vote,  in  person  or  by  proxy,  the  number  of 
shares  of  stock  owned  by  him,  for  as  many  persons 
as  there  are  directors  and  managers  to  be  elected, 
or  to  cumulate  said  shares  and  to  give  one  candi- 
date as  many  votes  as  the  number  of  directors  mul- 
tiplied by  the  number  of  his  shares  of  stock  shall 
equal,  or  to  distribute  them  on  the  same  principle 
among  as  many  candidates  as  he  shall  see  fit. ' ' 

Similar  provisions  are  to  be  found  in  the  consti- 
tutions of  several  other  States.  The  system  was 
ably  advocated  by  U.  S.  Senator  Buckalew,  of 
Pennsylvania,  for  the  election  of  Congressmen, 
and  unanimously  recommended  by  the  committee 
to  whom  it  was  referred.  The  senator  stated  that 
Pennsylvania  and  other  States  elected  inspectors 
of  election  by  the  * '  limited  vote, ' '  which  enabled  a 
minority  party  in  an  election  district  to  secure 
representation  in  that  body  if  they  could  poll  one- 
third  of  the  total  vote.  Upon  the  same  plan  sev- 
eral counties  in  Pennslvania  elected  jury  commis- 
sioners, and  similarly  New  York  State  in  1867 

35 


elected  delegates-at-large  to  constitutional  conven- 
tions. The  Pennsylvania  plan,  he  explained,  au- 
thorized each  voter  to  vote  for  one  inspector,  while 
two  were  to  be  chosen. 

In  1870  Illinois,  and  in  1874  Ohio,  adopted  the 
cumulative  vote  for  electing  members  to  the  legis- 
lature, as  did  Michigan  in  1889.  In  Illinois  the 
members  of  the  lower  house  are  elected  by  districts 
returning  three  members  of  each,  each  voter  hav- 
ing three  votes.  Boston,  Massachusetts,  in  1889 
adopted  the  limited  vote  for  the  election  of  alder- 
men. 

\Miile  these  two  plans  may  work  fairly  well  in 
small  or  stationary  constituencies,  or  where  but 
few  candidates  are  to  be  elected,  or  in  choosing 
officers  of  corporations,  they  are  not  adapted  for 
general  conditions  of  modem  political  life.  They 
involve,  usually,  a  large  waste  of  votes,  especially 
when  one  candidate  is  very  popular,  in  which  case 
it  is  liable  to  accomplish  the  veiy  opposite  of  the 
desired  result  by  giving  a  minority  party  a  ma- 
jority of  the  elected  body.  This  was  done  in  a 
London  school  board  in  1894,  when  the  Conserva- 
tive minority  elected  three  out  of  four  directors. 
Under  some  circumstances  it  may  give  one  of 
three  weak  parties  some  chance  of  representation, 
but  it  deprives  the  voter  of  independent  action, 
leaving  no  other  choice  than  one  of  these  which 
party  machinery  has  provided. 

The  limits  of  this  pamphlet  will  not  permit  a  de- 
scription of  all  the  many  systems  proposed.  We 
urge  the  importance  of  the  proportional  principle 
and  the  gross  defects  of  what  is  incorrectly  tenned 

86 


the  majority  system,  which  in  fact  makes  it  im- 
possible for  any  but  small  cliques  of  politicians  to 
lie,  as  a  rule,  represented. 

The  Swiss  Free  List. 

This  was  first  proposed  by  Mr.  Thomas  Gilpin, 
of  Philadelphia,  in  1844,  but  his  little  pamphlet 
was  long  forgotten  until  resuscitated  by  a  reprint 
in  1872,  and  it  has  been  subsequently  carried  into 
effect  in  Switzerland  by  plans  variously  modified. 
Lists  of  candidates  are  made  up  by  the  several  par- 
ties, each  list  not  exceeding  the  total  number  to  be 
elected;  each  elector  has  that  number  of  votes, 
which  he  casts  for  the  list  as  a  whole,  and  he  may 
also  indicate  his  preferences  for  the  candidates  on 
the  list.  The  quota  is  usually  ascertained  by  di- 
viding the  number  of  votes  cast  by  the  number  of 
candidates  to  be  elected;  then  each  party  is  as- 
signed as  many  candidates  as  there  are  full  quotas, 
the  balance  of  the  candidates  being  assigned  to  the 
several  parties  by  methods  which  vary;  usually 
those  parties  receiving  the  largest  fractions  of  a 
quota  getting  the  preference. 

An  actual  election  was  held  in  Berne  on  Decem- 
ber 1-5,  1895,  which  will  serve  as  an  example  and  is 
better  than  a  general  description.  Here  the 
''Droop"  quota  is  used,  which  consists  in  divid- 
ing the  total  vote  cast  by  the  total  number  of  rep- 
resentatives to  be  elected  phis  one,  and  adding  one 
to  the  quotient. 

There  were  then  22  representatives  to  be  elected. 
The  total  vote  being  99,640,  its  division  by  23,  and 

37 


291132 


one  added  to  the  quotient,  made  the  quota  4,333. 
The  following  tabulation  represents  the  result: 


Representatives  Votes 

Party.                 Vote  Polled.             Elected.  Represented. 

Liberals    39,907                  9  38,977 

Socialists    33,091                  7  30,331 

Conservatives    26,642                 6  25,998 

Total    99,640                22  95,326 


Under  the  quota  used  in  the  Hare  system,  as  well 
as  in  some  of  the  Swiss  Cantons,  the  99,640  would 
have  been  divided  by  22,  and  the  quotient,  4,529, 
taken,  the  Liberals  would  have  got  eight  full  quo- 
tas and  a  remainder  of  1,388 ;  the  Consei*vatives 
five  and  a  remainder  of  3,997.  But  this  would  only 
make  20  members.  So  one  more  is  given  the  Con- 
servatives with  the  largest  remainder  and  one  to 
the  Liberals  with  the  next  largest.  So  the  result 
would  have  been  the  same. 

As  actually  carried  out,  the  lost  votes  only 
amounted  to  4.3  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  whereas 
under  actual  elections  in  this  State  they  range 
from  45  to  53  per  cent. 

The  main  defects  of  this  system  are  that  it  would 
give  party  machinery  (especially  in  this  country) 
inore  swaj^  than  it  already  has,  and  raises  endless 
discussions  and  complications  as  to  the  best  means 
of  defining  the  quota  and  aj^portioning  the  frac- 
tions left  for  unappropriated  seats.  In  Switzer- 
land politicians  are  less  litigious  than  in  the  United 
States,  while  parties  represent  principles,  and  not 
trusts  and  combines  for  spoils.  Hence  a  system 
which  might  work  very  well  there  and  in  other  Eu- 

38 


ropean  countries  would  be  entirely  unsuitable  to 
American  conditions,  the  first  need  in  genuine 
political  or  municipal  reform  being  to  suppress 
party  machines  and  machinists. 

Such  fractions  may  occur  in  some  elections  on 
several  lists  and  be  so  large  as  to  amount  in  the 
aggregate  to  two  or  three  quotas.  In  such  cases 
the  divisions  will  not  result  in  the  election  of  the 
full  number  of  representatives  desired,  and  the 
balance  has  to  be  provided  for  in  proportion  to  the 
remaining  fractions.  We  may  show  this  by  the  fol- 
lowing example : 

Let  us  assume  a  place  where  the  Democrats  poll  2,400  votes. 
The  Republicans  poll 3,600  votes. 

Total    6,000  votes. 

With  six  seats  to  be  filled  the  quota  in  this  case 
would  be  1,000. 

To  tihe  Democrats  would  be  accordingly  assigned 
two  seats,  leaving  a  balance  of  400  votes. 

To  the  Republicans  would  be  accordingly  as- 
signed three  seats,  leaving  a  balance  of  600  votes. 

This  would  seat  five  representatives,  leaving  an- 
other seat  to  be  filled.  On  account  of  such  diffi- 
culties this  system  has  undergone  some  modifica- 
tions in  Switzerland,  where  it  otherwise  has 
worked  fairly  well,  although  the  ultimate  success 
will  have  to  be  determined  in  the  future.  In  Italy 
the  so-called  scrutine  di  lista,  a  similar  but  some- 
what modified  system  was  adopted  in  1882  in  ex- 
pectation of  its  resulting  in  the  return  of  represen- 
tatives with  broader  and  wider  views,  but  it  failed 
in  this  respect,  partly  for  reasons  already  stated 

39 


relating  to  the  working  of  the  party  machine,  and 
partly  on  account  of  the  excessive  niunl)er  of  depu- 
ties in  the  Italian  chamber  (580).  In  such  a  large 
body  it  would  be  rather  exceptional  if  mediocrity 
had  not  full  sway. 

The  D  'IIondt  and  Hagenbach-Bischoff  Systems. 

As  much  as  we  feel  tempted  to  give  a  fuller  de- 
scription of  the  D'Hondt  and  the  Hagenbach- 
Bischoff  systems  the  narrow  limits  we  have  to  ob- 
ser\'e  do  not  permit  more  than  to  remark  tliat  Dr. 
Victor  D  'Hondt  divides  the  number  of  votes  on  the 
lists  with  1,  2,  3,  etc.,  successively  up  to  the  number 
corresponding  with  the  number  of  re]3resentatives 
to  be  elected ;  the  quotient  resulting  from  the  high- 
est numl^er  is  the  di\dsion  number,  which  when 
used  as  a  divisor  for  the  numbers  as  arranged  by 
numerical  potency  from  the  results  of  the  first  di- 
vision gives  the  number  of  representatives  each 
ticket  is  entitled  to. 

Prof.  Hagenbach-Bischoff  finds  the  quota  by  di- 
viding the  total  numter  of  votes  by  the  number 
to  be  elected,  i)lus  one,  to  which  resulting  quotient 
he  adds  one  again  before  using  it  as  a  divisor,  as 
in  the  D'Hondt  system.  Each  list  receives  as 
many  representatives  ap]3ortioned  to  it  as  results 
from  a  division  of  the  quota  into  the  number  of 
votes  received.  Provision  is  made  for  cases  fail- 
ing in  this  way  to  produce  the  required  number  of 
representatives. 


40 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Preferential  or  Hare    System^    Sometimes 
Called  the  Hare-Cridge  System. 

We  now  come  to  what  may  be  called  the  classical 
system  of  Proportional  Representation.  It  has 
been  designated  by  Ernest  Naville  of  Switzerland 
the  ' '  ideal  system. ' '  The  practical  nse  of  tlie  An- 
drae  system  in  Denmark  for  the  election  of  a  part 
of  the  members  of  the  Landsting,  or  upper  house, 
dates  back  to  1856,  and  was  an  approach  to  the 
Plare  system,  which  latter  is  an  improvement  in  so 
far  as  it  adds  the  preferential  feature,  and  has 
been  much  simplified  by  Sir  John  Ijubbock,  and 
others,  since  the  valuable  book  of  Thomas  Hare 
appeared.  We  wall  here  explain  only  the  most  im- 
proved plan  of  the  Hare  system. 

In  this  system  the  quota  is  ascertained  as  in  the 
"Free  List"  system;  that  is  by  dividing  the  total 
number  of  votes  cast  by  the  number  of  represent- 
atives to  be  elected,  fractions  being  omitted.  Each 
voter  votes  only  for  one  representative,  but  at  the 
same  time  has  the  } privilege  of  designating  on  his 
ballot  by  figures  in  numerical  order,  his  choice  or 
l)references  of  the  candidates.  Thus  he  will  place 
the  figure  ''1"  opposite  the  name  of  the  candidate 
whom  he  most  desires  to  be  elected,  be  the  name 
printed  on  the  top  or  bottom  of  the  ticket ;  ' '  2  "  op- 
posite the  name  of  the  one  whom  he  would  ])refer 
in  case  the  candidate  of  his  first  choice  might  have 
been  elected  already  before  his  ballot  is  reached  (in 

41 


the  process  of  counting) ;  or,  if  lie  should  not  have 
succeeded  to  receive  a  sufficient  number  of  votes 
to  be  elected,  in  which  case  the  voter's  vote  would 
be  lost  without  provision  for  a  second,  third,  and 
so  on,  choice.  (It  is  probably  best  to  restrict  the 
voter  to  a  certain  number  of  choices,  so  as  to  not 
give  him  any  advantage  over  another  who  would 
use  the  privilege  without  limit.) 

This  simple  rule  for  casting  the  vote  can  be 
printed  on  each  ballot,  and  this  very  simple  pro- 
ceeding is  all  the  voter  is  concerned  with  and  is 
easy  enough  understood,  so  easy  that  it  has  been 
tried  in  schools  where  only  a  few  of  a  large  num- 
ber did  not  mark  the  ballots  correctly.* 

The  Mechanics'  Institute  of  San  Francisco, 
which  used  the  system  for  several  different  an- 
nual elections  of  directors,  had  the  following  on 
the  ballots : 

"Seven  Directors  to  be  elected. 

"Number  the  candidates  in  the  order  of  j^our 
preference ;  your  first  choice  mark  with  the  figure  1, 
in  the  space  on  the  left  of  your  candidate;  your 
second  choice  mark  '2,'  j^our  third  '3,'  and  so  on. 
Do  not  duplicate  numbers." 

A  thorough  mixing  up  of  the  ballots  precedes  the 
count,  to  prevent  any  candidate  having  any  undue 
advantage  over  another.  F]ach  ballot  is  then  se]> 
arately  taken  out  of  the  ballot-box,  the  name  of  the 
candidate  marked  with  the  number  1  called  out, 
and  placed  on  a  separate  file  prepared  beforehand, 

*  Sir  John  Lubbock  justly  remarks:  "Can  any  one  who 
does  not  understand  this  be  called  a  capable  citizen?" 


42 


or  arranged  by  any  other  practical  or  convenient 
mode.  After  all  the  ballots  are  thus  distributed 
and  counted  the  total  number  of  votes  is  divided 
by  the  number  of  representatives  to  be  elected, 
which  gives  us  the  quota  necessary  for  an  election. 
From  the  files  of  the  candidates  having  a  larger 
number  of  first  choice  votes  than  a  quota  such  sur- 
plus votes  are  distributed  (the  vote  of  the  candi- 
date having  the  largest  surplus  being  disposed  of 
first)  to  the  files  of  the  candidates  marked  "2"  on 
those  ballots,  and  should  such  candidate  be  elected 
already  then  to  the  file  of  the  candidate  marked 
"3,"  and  so  on  until  each  ballot  is  made  avail- 
able for  some  candidate  designated  and  not  yet 
elected. 

The  intention  of  this  procedure  is  to  utilize  each 
vote,  or  ballot,  for  the  candidate  to  whom  the  voter 
would  have  given  it,  as  indicated  by  his  numbering 
thereof,  could  he  have  known  that  his  first  choice 
(respectively  second,  third,  and  so  on),  had  been 
elected  already  without  his  assistance. 

After  all  the  surplus  votes  are  thus  distributed 
without  having  elected  the  requisite  number  of 
representatives,  there  still  remaining  candidates 
whose  files  do  not  contain  a  sufficient  number  of 
votes  to  make  up  a  quota,  we  will  next  distribute 
the  ballots  of  those  candidates  having  the  least 
number  of  votes  to  the  second,  third,  fourth  choice, 
and  so  on,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  surplus  votes, 
and  as  soon  as  any  candidate  thus  attains  a  quota 
he  is  declared  elected  and  his  ballots  are  separated 
as  stated  before  and  his  name  not  taken  in  consid- 
eration any  more  in  the  count.    This  proceeding  is 

43 


kept  lip  until  the  total  uumlDer  of  representatives 
are  elected;  the  remainder  being  so  declared 
whether  they  have  received  a  full  f|Uota  or  not. 
(This  last  nile  obviates  the  necessity  to  resort  to 
the  "Droop  quota"  system,  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made.) 

In  case  of  ties  some  arbitrary  rule  inay  be  adopt- 
ed, either  giving  preference  to  the  older  one  of  the 
candidates,  or  to  the  one  having  the  largest  number 
of  first  choice  votes ;  or,  as  a  last  resort,  when  not 
against  the  law,  to  the  casting  of  the  lot. 

In  September,  1892,  this  process  was  adopted  at 
the  quarterly  meeting  of  the  Mechanics'  Institute 
of  San  Francisco  for  electing  annually  seven  of  its 
fourteen  trustees,  the  essential  portions  of  Section 
2,  Article  IX,  of  its  constitution,  as  so  adopted,  be- 
ing as  follows : 

**Sec.  2.  Every  member  who  shall  have  com- 
plied with  Article  VIIT,  Sections  1  and  2,  at  least 
six  months  previous  to  such  election,  and  who  is 
not  delinquent,  shall  be  entitled  to  vote  in  the  elec- 
tion of  trustees.  The  voting  shall  Ije  by  the  process 
known  as  the  preferential  method  of  Proportional 
Representation,  as  follows : 

"Each  voter  shall  have  one  vote,  but  may 
vote  in  the  alternative  for  as  many  candidates  as 
he  pleases  by  wiiting  the  figures  1,  2,  3,  etc.,  oppo- 
site the  names  of  those  candidates  in  the  order  of 
liis  preference. 

"2.  The  ballot  papers  having  been  all  mixed, 
shall  be  drawn  out  in  succession  and  stamped  with 
numbers,  so  that  no  two  shall  bear  the  same  num- 
ber. 

44 


'^3.  The  number  obtained  by  dividing  the 
whole  number  of  good  ballot  papers  tendered  at 
the  election  by  the  number  of  Trustees  to  be  elected 
shall  be  called  the  quota.  If  such  number  has  a 
fraction,  such  fractional  part  shall  be  deducted. 

"4.  Every  candidate  who  has  a  number  of  first 
votes  equal  to  or  greater  than  the  quota  shall  be 
elected,  and  so  many  of  the  ballot  i)apers  contain- 
ing those  votes  shall  be  set  aside  as  the  quota  of 
that  candidate,  in  a  sealed  envelope,  and  sealed  and 
signed  by  the  judges  of  election.  On  all  other  bal- 
lot papers  the  name  of  such  elected  candidate  shall 
be  cancelled,  with  the  effect  of  raising  by  so  much 
in  the  order  of  preference  all  votes  given  to  other 
candidates  after  him.  This  process  shall  be  re- 
peated until  no  candidate  has  more  than  a  quota  of 
first  votes  or  votes  deemed  first. 

"5.  Then  the  candidate  or  candidates  having 
the  fewest  first  votes,  or  votes  deemed  first,  shall 
be  declared  not  to  be  elected,  with  the  effect  of 
raising  so  much  in  the  order  of  preference  all  votes 
given  tO'  candidates  after  him  or  them,  and  rule  4 
shall  be  again  applied,  if  possible. 

''6.  When  by  successive  applications  of  Rules 
4  and  5,  the  number  of  candidates  is  reduced  to 
the  number  of  trustees  remaining  to  be  elected,  the 
remaining  candidates  shall  be  declared  elected." 

On  February  28th,  1893,  the  seven  trustees  were 
elected  accordingly.  As  905  votes  w^ere  cast,  the 
quota  was  129.  Two  candidates  received  187  and 
179  votes  respectively  as  first  choice,  the  distri- 
bution of  their  surpluses  did  not  elect  any  others. 

By  ''elimination"    three    more    received    full 

45 


quotas ;  one  was  elected  on  123  votes,  and  another 
on  122.  There  were  but  16  ineffective  votes,  and 
the  whole  counting  was  completed  within  four 
hours. 

It  took  only  two  and  a  quarter  hours  to  finish  the 
count  at  the  fourth  election  of  the  Institute  con- 
ducted by  that  system ;  955  votes  had  to  be  counted. 
At  the  first  election  out  of  five  judges  and  tally 
clerks,  only  one  had  any  jirevious  experience  of 
the  process ;  yet  none  of  them  experienced  the 
slightest  difficulty  in  the  discharge  of  their  func- 
tions. 

AATiatever  extra  time  may  be  required  for  the 
transfer  of  ballots  is  saved  again  by  the  gain  in 
calling  off  and  checking  the  ballots  when  no  more 
than  one  name  of  the  first,  second  or  third,  etc., 
choice  have  to  be  considered;  while  the  majority 
system  necessitates  the  calling  off  of  every  name 
on  the  ticket. 

The  Gove  Plan. 

This  plan  or  system  was  named  after  Mr.  Wm. 
H.  Gove,  of  Salem,  Mass.,  who  simplifies  the  elec- 
tion as  well  as  the  counting  by  allowing  the  voter 
to  mark  one  name  only,  and  by  authorizing  each 
candidate  to  announce  officially  before  the  election 
the  names  of  one  or  more  other  candidates  on  the 
ticket  his  surplus  or  insufficient  vote  is  to  be  trans- 
ferred to.  The  transfer  is  effected  first  to  such 
candidate  among  those  not  liaving  a  quota  but  hav- 
ing received  the  next  largest  number  of  votes,  until 
such  number  is  secured;  then  to  the  one  next 
larger,  and  so  on. 

46 


The  drawbacks  of  this  system  are  that  the  voter 
is  deprived  of  his  individual  choice  in  the  disposal 
of  the  contingent  vote,  that  while  the  candidate* 
rijight  usnally  name  alternates  from  their  owii  par- 
ties the  Plare  plan  leaves  the  voter  to  exercise  his 
choice  freely  without  regard  to  party  with  the  sole 
view  to  qualities  of  the  candidate.  Popular  candi- 
dates would  be  exposed  to  excessive  importunities 
on  behalf  of  unfit  persons  and  miglit  be  induced  to 
]*lace  such  persons  on  tlie  list  of  alternates.  The 
waste  of  votes  would  be  greater  under  this  system 
than  under  the  Hare  plan,  but  less  than  under  the 
*'Pree  list." 

Its  advantages  over  the  Hare  plan  are  more 
rapid  casting  and  counting  the  vote,  and  tliat  as 
soon  as  the  votes  would  be  counted  at  the  precincts, 
anyone  with  a  record  of  that  count  and  a  list  of  the 
alternates  or  contingents  of  each  candidate,  could 
by  addition  determine  what  candidates  had  been 
elected,  and  there  would  be  no  necessity  to  remove 
the  ballots  from  the  precinct,  except  to  verify  the 
count;  and  then  should  the  ballots  be  lost  or  stolen 
on  the  way,  the  precinct  would  still  be  sufficient  to 
determine  the  result.  Under  the  Hare  plan  the  bal- 
lots themselves,  or  their  duplicates,  would  have  to 
be  conveyed,  except  in  municipal  elections,  to  some 
central  point,  such  as  the  State  capital,  to  be 
counted.  But  it  is  claimed  that  the  ballots  could 
easily  be  duplicated  automatically,  and  the  objec- 
tions have  no  weight  as  to  municipal,  societary, 
corporation  and  convention  elections,  in  all  of 
which  the  Hare  plan  would  work  without  a  flaw. 

The  Gove  plan  is  advocated  by  John  M.  Berry, 
of  Worcester,  Mass.,  an  able  and  energetic  pio- 

47 


neer  of  electoral  reform,  who  is  addicted  to  the 
compilation  of  unanswerable  statistics  against  the 
myth  of  majority  rule. 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  stated  that  Proportional 
liepresentation  has  met  with  objections ;  but  what 
reform,  invention,  improvement  or  innovation  has 
not  f    Historical  facts  without  number  may  be  cited 
in  proof  of  this  assertion;  but  in  our  time,  when 
events  follow  another  in  c[uick  succession,  every 
one  may  be  able  to  supply  the  proof  from  the 
storehouse  of  his  own  exjjerience.     Only  two  of 
what  seem  with  our  i)reseDt  experience  very  amus- 
ing instances  may  be  concisely  related  from  state- 
ments in  A.  Ti.  Conklin's  book  (Citj"  Government 
in  the  United  States.  New  York,  Appleton,  1894) : 
AVhen  in  1853  a  bill  was  pending  in  the  legislature 
of  the  State  of  New  York  for  the  establishment  of 
the  so-called  Central  Park  of  the  Citj^  of  New  York 
tliere  appeared  before  the     committee     on    cities 
Ijrominent  taxpayers  of  the  above-named  city  op- 
posing the  project,  arguing  that  their  money  would 
be  squandered  in  laying  out  beautiful  grass  plots 
planted  with  flowers  and  shrubbery,  because  the 
rabble  would  overrun  these  places  and  ruin  them. 
The  same  author  also  relates  how  the  people  of 
Boston  and  New  York  brickbatted  the  first  steam 
fire-engine  and  hooted  its  inventor. 

Those  who  have  thought  the  Hare  system  un- 
workable have  been  answered  by  John  Stuart  Mill, 
who  says:  "These  it  will  be  found  are  generally 
I)eople  who  have  barely  heard  of  it,  or  have  given  it 
a  very  slight  and  cursory  examination."  How 
matters  apparently  complicated  and  unwieldy  can 
be  easily  moved  and  expedited  by  being  properly 

48 


arranged  and  systematized  was  strikingly  shown 
by  the  handling  of  the  last  Spanish  war  bond  issue 
of  200  million  dollars  by  the  Treasury  Department, 
as  related  by  Hon.  Frank  A.  Vanderslip  in  the 
*'Formn"  of  September,  1898,  We  can  only  give  a 
small  excerpt,  abbreviated  at  times,  of  this  in  more 
than  one  respect  interesting  article.  He  says: 
''The  task  of  handling  the  loan  has  been  one  that 
few  people  have  comprehended,"  as  there  had  to 
be  an  amount  of  detail  overcome  ' '  such  as  had  been 
unknown  in  the  previous  experience  of  the  depart- 
ment. *  *  *  The  task  was  one  that  was 
clearly  the  greatest  clerical  undertaking  in  which 
the  government  ever  engaged  in  the  same  lengih 
of  time. "  Tn  a  little  over  twenty-four  hours  from 
the  receipt  of  the  first  copies  of  the  four  million 
circulars  and  instruction  blanks  the  mails  carried 
them  to  every  bank,  postmaster  and  express  office; 
details  were  also  sent  to  twenty-four  thousand 
newspapers. 

''In  less  than  three  hours  after  the  close  of  the 
loan  every  corporation  subscription  was  in  the 
mail  with  a  letter  of  rejection,  and  eveiy  individual 
subscription  for  amounts  of  $50,000  and  over  was 
also  on  its  return  trip  with  a  similar  letter.  Seven 
hours  after  the  subscription  closed  the  department 
was  able  to  announce  quite  accurately  where  the 
line  would  be  drawn  below  which  all  subscriptions 
would  be  allotted.  AVlien  it  is  remembered  that 
the  complex  process  of  official  bookkeeping,  the 
collection  of  remittances,  tlie  mailing  of  notification 
of  receipts  and  allotments,  the  making  of  card  in- 
dexes and  in  the  writing  of  small  checks  covering 
the  interest  of  the  subscription  to  August  1  (the 

49 


date  when  the  bonds  began  carrying  interest)  some 
idea  of  tlie  clerical  labor  involved  may  be  had. 
Allotments  were  made  to  practically  three  hundred 
thousand  successful  subscribers.  Multiply  that  by 
twelve  and  recollect  that  every  entry  of  a  name  had 
to  have  an  independent  notification,  and  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  writing  of  three  million  six  hundred 
thousand  names  was  a  task  of  no  mean  propor- 
tions. ' '  But  this  does  not  include  the  work  of  re- 
turning one  million  two  hundred  thousand  sub- 
scriptions, nor  the  correspondence  resulting  from 
errors  made  by  subscribers.  Twenty  people  were 
required  to  open  the  envelopes  with  the  bids,  and 
as  each  package  with  allotments  had  five  seals  put 
on,  a  total  of  one  million  five  hundred  thousand 
wax  seals  was  required.  And  all  this  work  was 
done,  and  more,  which  space  does  not  permit  men- 
tioning, by  five  hundred  clerks  employed  "without 
regard  to  civil  service  rules.  Legibility  of  hand- 
writing and  good  moral  character  were  the  tests 
imposed. ' ' 

After  the  practical  tests  Proportional  E.epresen- 
tation  has  had  in  a  smaller  way  in  the  election  for 
six  years  of  trustees  of  the  Mechanics'  Institute  of 
this  city,  and  in  many  other  instances  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  too  numerous  to  refer  to  here, 
there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  of  its  practicability 
in  public  elections. 


50 


CHAPTER  VI. 

What   Propoetional   Eepresentation   Will   Do 
OR  Prevent. 

One  need  not  be  as  enthusiastic  about  the  ex- 
pected results  of  Proportional  Representation  as 
John  Stuart  Mill,  who  said  of  the  Hare  system  that 
''it  will  be  recognized  as  alone  just  in  principle, 
as  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  practical  improvements 
and  as  the  most  efficient  possible  safeguard  of 
further  parliamentary  refomis."  Neither  is  it 
necessary  to  go  as  far  as  A.  R.  Conklin,  the  au- 
thor already  referred  to,  who  says  that  "there  is  no 
hope  for  improvement  in  city  government  in  the 
United  States  until  Proportional  Representation 
can  be  established,"  but  the  most  conservative 
claim  can  be  established  that  it  will  do  away  with 
corruption  to  a  very  large  extent.  It  would  make 
a  second  house  superfluous  in  municipal  and  legis- 
lative bodies  at  least ;  it  would  prevent  riot  and  un- 
necessary excitement  at  elections,  and  as  Sir  John 
Lubbock  says,  "it  secures  the  three  great  requi- 
sites of  representation,  namely:  Power  of  major- 
ity, hearing  of  minority,  and  the  representation  of 
every  considerable  party  by  its  best  and  ablest 
leaders. ' ' 

The  corruption  or  coercion  of  a  number  of  voters 
could  not  affect  any  important  practical  results,  be- 
cause the  corruption  of  as  large  a  number  as  makes 
a  quota,  which  means  mostly  thousands  of  votes  in 
practical  politics,  could  only  result  in  an  insig- 

51 


nificant  numerical  gain  in  tlie  representative  body. 
Tlie  object  in  view  by  electing  an  ni)per  house  as  a 
check  on  the  ])opulaT  branch  of  a  legislative  body, 
besides  incurring  an  extra  exj^ense  would  be  found 
useless,  its  function  would  be  transferred  to  a 
watchful  and  responsible  minority,  with  the  full  re- 
sponsibility throwTi  on  the  one  house,  obviating 
thereby  the  practice  of  one  liouse  throwing  the  re- 
sponsibility on  the  other  to  escape  from  it. 

Riot  and  unnecessaiy  excitement  will  lose  their 
incentives  because  there  cannot  be  any  overbalan- 
cing of  the  entire  result  of  an  election  by  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  voters  or  so-called 
"piece  parties,"  as  almost  all  the  votes  are  effect- 
ive, only  a  few  are  unrepresented,  and  each  party 
has  no  more  influence  than  it  has  strength.  The 
truth  of  the  above  assertion  was  dem^onstrated  in 
the  Swiss  Canton  of  Ticino.  We  have  still  to  add 
that  it  would  relegate  the  so-called  ]iolitical  boss 
to  the  unemployed.  He  is  the  one  who  now  has  to 
provide  the  "i)iece  parties,"  the  small  overbalan- 
cing vote,  the  corrupting  influences.  He  could  not 
then  overbalance  the  opposing  party  with  the  vote 
of  a  few  followers ;  all  he  could  do  would  be  to  get 
representation  in  proportion  to  his  following. 

There  is  no  claim  made  for  Proportional  Kepi-e- 
sentation  that  it  would  be  a  cure  for  all  evils  of  the 
body  politic,  but  it  surely  would  be  a  great  step  in 
advance  toward  bringing  the  legislative  bodies 
nearer  to  the  people.  That  other  i)roblems  will  still 
remain  to  be  solved  is  in  the  natural  order  of  things 
and  can  be  learned  by  reading  the  histoiy  of 
every  civilization.  As  one  of  the  remaining  prob- 
lems may  be  mentioned  the  excessive  number  of 

52 


representatives  the  most  of  tliese  assemblages  are 
composed  of,  whereby  their  usefulness  for  effective 
work  as  deliberative  bodies  is  largely  impaired.  In 
proof  of  this  assertion  it  can  be  stated  that  in  the 
54th  Congress  of  the  United  States  the  Senate, 
consisting  of  90  members,  passed  1682  bills  and 
joint  resolutions,  while  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  same  Congress,  with  357  members,  dis- 
posed of  but  1,200;  and  it  can  hardly  be  success- 
fully maintained  that  in  the  latter  body  more 
scnipulous  attention  is  paid  to  the  work  before  it 
than  in  the  former.  Preceding  Congresses  make  a 
similar  showing. 

Literature. 

The  scant  knowledge  of  Proportional  Represen- 
tation generally  found  among  the  people,  its  rep- 
resentatives included,  is  not  the  fault  of  a  lack  of 
literature  on  the  subject ;  in  fact,  a  voluminous  lit- 
erature has  been  produced  ever  since  Thomas  Hare 
wrote  his  valuable  book  in  1859,  in  several  lan- 
guages, including  the  Japanese,  and  earnest  work- 
ers are  found  in  almost  every  country  with  a  par- 
liamentary government.  As  may  be  expected  the 
success  is  only  a  slow  and  gradual  one.  Within 
the  last  few  years  it  can  be  noticed  also  that  no 
writer  on  governmental  science  can  afford  to  omit 
calling  attention  to  it.  Among  them  we  find  A. 
Laurence  Lowell,  E.  H.  Lecky  and  vVlbert  Shaw. 
Others  have  been  mentioned  already. 

It  is  not  to  give  additional  strength  to  the  move- 
ment, nor  to  add  any  great  original  ideas  that  this 
has  been  written,  but  to  give  in  a  condensed  form 

53 


some  general  information  on  the  subject,  whicli  tHe 
average  citizen,  for  lack  of  time,  is  usually  not  in 
the  position  to  acquire  from  books  or  essays  con- 
taining long  and  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  sub- 
ject. 


54 


APPENDIX. 

(By  Robert  Tyson.) 

Since  my  friend,  Alfred  Cridge,  prepared  this 
pamphlet,  some  developments  have  taken  place 
which  make  it  desirable  to  add  something  in  the 
shape  of  an  appendix.  I  shall  aso  take  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  some  remarks  on  certain  of  Mr. 
Cridge 's  views. 

Direct     Legislation    by    the   Referendum     and 
Initiative. 

The  advocates  of  Direct  Legislation  are  coming 
more  and  more  to  recognize  Proportional  Repre- 
sentation as  a  valuable  adjunct  to  their  reform,  and 
they  do  not  now  advocate  D.  L.  as  a  substitute  for 
representative  government.  The  way  the  two  re- 
forms are  going  hand  in  hand  is  evidenced  by  such 
facts  as  these:  The  quarterly  ''Direct  Legislation 
L'ecord"  and  the  "Proportional  Representation 
Review"  are  published  together.  Eltweed  Pom- 
eioy,  George  H.  Shibley,  and  other  leaders  of  the 
D.  L.  movement  personally  favor  P.  R.,  and  often 
mention  it  in  their  writings.  Proportionalists 
realize  that  in  many  cases  it  is  through  the  opera- 
ton  of  D.  L.  that  P.  R.  will  be  brought  about.  Mr. 
Cridge 's  criticism  of  D.  L.  applies  to  the  older  as- 
pect of  D.  L.,  and  to  its  being  used  as  a  substitute 
for  representative  government.    But  the  situation 

55 


has  been  greatly  changed  by  the  newer  B.  L.  pro- 
])Osals,  and  by  the  admirable  practical  methods  of 
the  National  Federation  for  INfajority  Rule.  An 
Optional  Keferendum  is  now  almost  universally 
advocated,  which  gives  a  real  veto  of  the  people  on 
bad  legislation.  The  difficulty  Mr.  Cridge  men- 
tions as  to  the  Initiative  can  be  largely  overcome 
by  setting  out  in  full  at  the  head  of  the  petition  the 
measure  asked  for,  and  having  a  provision  that 
when  that  measure  is  submitted  to  the  people  the 
Legislature  can  submit  an  amended  measure  of  its 
own,  and  let  the  people  choose  which  measure  they 
will  have,  if  either. 

Proportional  IIepresentation  in  Belgium. 

The  Kingdom  of  Belgium  has  adopted  Propor- 
tional Representation  for  all  parliamentaiy  elec- 
tions. The  act  amending  the  Electoral  Code  so  as 
to  provide  for  "la  Representation  Proportionelle, " 
passed  both  the  Legislative  Chambers  in  1899,  re- 
ceived the  royal  assent  of  Leopold  II,  and  was 
promulgated  in  the  "]\[oniteur  Beige"  (the  official 
journal  or  gazette)  on  December  30th,  1899. 

Proportional  Representation  was  used  at  the 
Belgian  general  election  in  May,  1900,  and  again 
in  the  general  elections  of  1902.  The  system  used 
is  the  Free  List  with  the  Single  Vote.  Count 
Goblet  d'Alviella  (Count  Saint  Etienne,  Belgium) 
has  published  an  excellent  l)ook  on  the  subject,  en- 
titled "La  Representation  Proportionnelle  en 
Belgique:  Hi  stone  d'une  Reforme."  It  is  writ- 
ten in  the  French  language.    I  have  received  sev- 


56 


era!  letters  from  Count  d'Alviella,  and  qnote  a  pas- 
sage from  his  letter  of  the  9th  of  August : 

"Of  course,  there  are  some  improvements  which 
it  would  he  desirable  to  introduce  into  the  workings 
of  our  ])roi)ortional  sj^stem  in  order  to  minimize 
the  number  of  lost  votes,  and  different  schemes 
have  been  put  forward  to  secure  this ;  but  the  prin- 
ciple, and  even  our  application  of  it,  are  not  ques- 
tioned any  more,  save  by  a  few  politicians  of  the 
old  schools." 

The  Haee  System  in  Tasmania. 

Six  elections  under  the  Hare  system  have  been 
held  in  Tasmania,  the  last  one  being  in  1901,  when 
Tasmania's  Senatoi's  for  the  Australian  Common- 
wealth were  proportionally  elected.  After  that 
election  the  Hare  system  was  abolished,  and  the  old 
plan  revei-ted  to.  Why  this  was  done  is  explained 
by  the  following  extract  from  a  speech  of  Senator 
Keating,  of  Tasmania: 

"It  has  been  said  that  the  Hare  system  was 
abandoned  after  a  second  trial,  but  the  truth  was 
that  after  its  adoption  for  two  general  elections 
Parliament  decided  to  apply  it  to  the  whole  of  the 
State  for  the  election  of  members  of  the  Federal 
Parliament.  It  was  then  that  certain  politicians 
became  dissatisfied.  There  had  been  sixteen  can- 
didates for  the  Australian  Senate,  and  when  the 
State  was  polled  as  one  constituency  the  result  was 
a  large  predominance  of  new  blood,  five  out  of  the 
six  elected  being  new  men.  There  was  much  heart- 
burning among  a  few  politicians,  who  at  ordinary 
elections  and  in  small  constituencies,  had  found  it 


possible  to  score,  but  who  in  a  wider  area,  where 
parocliial  consideration  gave  way  to  national,  were 
left  out  in  the  cold.  Thus  it  came  about  that  when 
the  revision  of  the  electoral  law  was  under  consid- 
eration, those  jjersons,  who  lield  seats  in  the  State 
Parliament  did  not  favor  tlie  enlargement  of  the 
districts,  without  which  effective  voting  was  im- 
possible, and  for  the  sake  of  uniformity  it  was  de- 
cided, even  in  the  case  of  the  towns,  to  revert  to 
the  older  and  more  effete  method  of  voting.  There 
had  never  been  any  organized  attempt  to  upset  ef- 
fective voting  in  Tasmania.  All  the  papers  spoke 
with  one  voice  in  its  favor  and  condemned  Parlia- 
ment for  dropping  it. ' ' 

The  Hare  System  in  South  Australia. 

Miss  Catharine  Helen  Spence  and  Mrs.  Jeanne 
Young  are  actively  promoting  an  agitation  for  the 
adoption  of  the  Hare-Spence  system  in  the  State  of 
South  Australia,  with  such  success  that  a  majority 
of  the  Upper  House  is  pledged  to  the  support  of  a 
bill  to  use  the  system  in  State  elections,  whilst  in 
the  Lower  House  many  members  are  favorable. 
The  close  of  the  session  of  the  State  Legislature 
has  thrown  the  bill  over  until  1904,  but  many  prom- 
inent men  favor  the  principle,  and  prospects  for  its 
passage  are  bright. 

The  Cumulative  Vote  and  Limited  Vote. 

In  Illinois  the  wretched  little  attempt  at  propor- 
tionalism  has  been  a  flat  failure,  as  might  have  been 
expected  from  the  adoption  of  districts  returning 
only  three  members  each,   and  the  defective   plan 

58 


adopted.  To  give  proportional  representation  a 
fair  chance,  it  should  be  used  in  districts  electing 
not  less  than  five  members  each ;  seven  or  nine 
would  be  better  still.  The  Limited  Vote  is  a  poor 
makeshift.  It  was  used  in  the  city  of  Toronto, 
Canada,  for  a  while  for  legislative  elections,  but 
w^as  dropped. 

The  Swiss  Free  List. 

Some  of  the  defects  Mr.  C ridge  points  out  would 
he.  remedied  by  the  use  of  the  Single  Vote :  that  is, 
that  each  voter  should  have  only  one  vote,  instead 
of  being  given  an  equal  vote  for  several  candidates. 
The  use  of  the  Single  Vote  was  one  of  the  greatest 
improvements  introduced  by  Belgium  over  the 
Swiss  system.  I  regard  multiple  voting  as  an 
abomination. 

The  Hare-Spence  System. 

Mr.  Cridge  does  not  mention  one  of  the  most 
valuable  uses  of  the  Hare-Spence  system,  namely: 
its  use  in  what  may  be  tenned  ' '  meeting-room  elec- 
tions." That  is  the  election  of  officers  aiid  com- 
mittees of  voluntary  associations.  It  is  much  used 
in  this  way  by  Canadian  organized  labor.  Such 
a  use  of  it  is  really  one  of  the  most  effective 
means  of  propaganda ;  but  unless  the  principle  is 
thoroughly  understood,  difficulties  may  be  met  in 
working.  I  have  recently  compiled  a  small  ''book 
of  rules ' '  which  may  be  found  useful  in  this  con- 
nection, and  will  send  one  on  application. 

Another  very  practical  use  of  the  Hare-Spence 

S9 


system  is  its  ado])tion  in  the  election  of  single  of- 
ficers, such  as  Mayor,  President,  or  Secretary. 

Only  the  preferential  part  of  the  system  is  used, 
there  being  no  ''quota"  to  be  got.  The  working 
is  simple,  accurate  and  easily  understood.  Its  ad- 
vantages are  that  it  gives  a  free  choice  of  candi- 
dates and  insures  a  clear  majority  at  one  balloting. 
The  Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fellows  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Ontario,  Canada,  have  adopted  this  plan 
for  the  election  of  their  Grand  Officers  by  their 
membership  of  about  25,000. 

The  San  Francisco   Mechanics'  Institute. 

I  regret  to  state  that  the  use  of  the  Hare  Spence 
system  has  been  dropped  in  this  Institute,  and  a 
bare  majority  of  the  voters  can  now  put  in  all  the 
the  trustees.  I  am  informed  that  this  is  due  to  a 
lack  of  interest  of  the  members  generally  in  the 
government  of  the  institution,  and  to  the  persistent 
opposition  of  a  few  interested  and  influential  mem- 
bers. 

The  Gove  Plan. 

I  greatly  admire  the  Gove  plan.  It  has  the  cardi- 
nal merits  of  simjilicity,  accuracy,  and  workable- 
ness. Anybody  can  understand  it  and,  understand- 
ing it,  can  understand  the  principle  of  pro- 
portional repi-esentation.  I  do  not  think  that 
candidates  would  be  induced  to  put  unfit 
persons  on  their  list  of  alternates.  In  prac- 
tice the  list  of  alternates  would  be  decided 
by     a    committee     of     the     candidate's     active 

60 


supporters  in  consultation  with  him.  Those  put  on 
the  list  would  be  men  of  the  same  party  as  the 
candidate,  or  those  in  harmony  with  his  opinions ; 
and  these  are  just  the  persons  whom  in  most  eases 
the  voter  himself  would  choose.  The  making  of  an 
improper  list  would  seriously  injure  a  candidate's 
chances ;  whilst  the  very  making  of  a  list  is  useful 
information  to  the  voter  as  to  the  political  position 
of  the  candidate,  especially  if  independently  nomi- 
nated. 

The  chief  drawback  of  the  Gove  plan  is  that  it 
cannot  conveniently  be  used  in  meeting-room  elec- 
tions ;  but  this  refers  of  course  only  to  the  question 
of  propaganda. 

Simplicity. 

The  bane  of  Proportional  Representation  has 
been  the  complexities  introduced  by  those  who  aim 
at  an  impossible  and  needless  mathematical  accu- 
racy. In  most  actual  elections  the  candidates  who 
head  the  poll  on  the  count  of  first  choices  are  those 
ultimately  elected.  This  was  the  case  in  every  elec- 
tion in  Tasmania.  Therefore  the  transfers  are  of 
secondary  importance,  and  the  essential  point  is  the 
use  of  the  single  vote.    Let  me  illustrate  this. 

If  you  are  to  elect  a  committee  of  five  by  a  hun- 
dred voters  on  the  proportional  principle,  the 
counting  finally  divides  the  voters  into  five  groups 
of  about  twenty,  each  group  electing  one  candidate. 
When  you  have  nine  candidates,  the  use  of  the 
single  vote  will  divide  your  voters  into  nine  un- 
equal groups  to  begin  with.  If  the  votes  are  trans- 
ferable on  the  Hare  or  Gove  plan,  then  your  nine 

61 


groups  are  gradually  reduced  to  five  groups  by  tlie 
transfers.  Now,  in  practice,  the  five  larger  groups 
of  the  nine  are  those  which  usually  draw  to  them- 
selves the  units  of  the  four  smaller  groups,  but  not 
always,  although  it  scarcely  ever  makes  a  differ- 
ence of  more  than  one  candidate.  The  larger  the 
number  of  candidates,  the  less  sure  it  is  that  the 
five  men  heading  the  poll  on  first  count  will  be  elect- 
ed. 

Therefore  the  use  of  some  plan  of  transfer  is 
necessary  as  a  safeguard,  but  when  the  transfer 
is  a  minor  feature,  wiiy  place  so  much  stress  on 
the  particular  method,  and  why  introduce  endless 
complications?  The  common  people  object  to  sub- 
mitting their  ballots  to  a  complicated  system  of 
counting  which  they  cannot  understand. 

EOBERST  TYSON. 

Toronto,  Canada,  February  14th,  1903. 


d2 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 


(From  The  Star^  San  Francisco,  January  18th, 

1902.) 


On  Monday  (Januarj^  13th,  1902)  there  passed 
away  a  grand  old  man  whose  name  was  not  alto- 
gether unkno'^Ti  to  fame,  and  whose  life  was 
covered  and  crowned  with  glory — not  that  ephem- 
eral and  empty  glory  which  comes  from  Avealth  or 
high  position  in  society  or  state,  but  that  eternal 
glory  which  must  follow  a  life  of  useful,  volimtary 
service  to  humaoiitj^ 

Alfred  Cridge  embodied  the  best  of  all  there  is 
in  human  nature.  He  was  truly  one  who  loved  his 
fellow  men,  and  because  he  loved  them  he  lived 
for  them,  never  for  a  moment  giving  thought  to 
self. 

He  was  associated  with  The  Star  during  nearly 
all  the  time  it  has  been  published,  and  the  relations 
between  us  have  always  been  something  more  than 
that  of  friends.  Pie  taught  us,  by  his  nobility  of 
character  and  gentle  nature,  to  regard  him  with 
filial  affection,  almost  as  a  father. 

Alfred  Cridge  was  born  in  Newi:on,  England, 
December  10,  1824.  His  father,  Eichard  Cridge, 
was  all  his  life  in  the  service  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment, retiring  on  a  pension  at  an  advanced  age. 
"\\Tien  about  twelve  years  of  age,  Alfred  Cridge 

G3 


moved  with  his  parents  from  England  to  Toronto, 
Canada,  lie  inlierited  a  good  constitution,  and 
was  well  educated.  He  very  early  in  life  manifest- 
ed strong  humanitarian  sympathies,  and  became 
an  enthusiastic  Abolitionist  upon  removing  to  Ohio, 
shortly  after  attaining  his  majority.  At  that  time, 
magazines,  books,  and  periodicals,  were  not  de- 
livered by  the  postoffice,  but  by  special  agents,  and 
Mr.  Oridge  in  this  capacity  traveled  extensively 
through  all  the  States  west  of  the  Mississippi,  ob- 
taining in  a  few  years  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
their  social  conditions,  and  of  the  "peculiar  insti- 
tution" of  chattel  slavery. 

In  April,  1854,  he  married  Miss  Annie  Denton, 
of  Da^^on,  Ohio,  an  English  school  teacher,  who, 
like  himself,  was  much  interested  in  the  progress- 
ive movements  of  the  day.  For  several  years, 
under  great  difficulties  and  in  spite  of  privations 
and  antagonisms,  he  published  the  "Vanguard," 
in  Dayton,  Ohio,  and  afterwards  in  Kichmond,  In- 
diana, a  paper  devoted  to  consideration  of  social 
and  economic  conditions  and  the  abolition  of  slav- 
eiy. 

In  1861,  with  his  wife,  and  two  children,  he  re- 
moved to  Washington,  being  first  in  the  United 
States  Secret  Service  and  afterwards  in  the  Quar- 
termaster-General 's  office.  Before  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War  he  was  made  Chief  Clerk  of  the  In- 
spection Di\^sion,  a  position  which  he  held  until 
1875 — and  in  which  he  might  have  become  a  mil- 
lionaire as  others  did  at  that  time  in  like  positions, 
some  of  whom  arc  to-day  honored  members  of  so- 
ciety and  high  in  the  councils  of  state.     Money 

64 


could  not  allure  him ;  in  fact,  the  only  use  he  ever 
seemed  to  have  even  for  his  salary  was  to  promote 
the  principles  in  which  he  believed. 

During  all  these  years  he  continued  to*  use  his 
pen  in  behalf  of  his  fellow  men.  Until  the  Eman- 
cipation Proclamation  he  would  not  take  out  citi- 
zenship in  the  United  States  because  of  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery,  but  iimnediately  did  so  when  chat- 
tel slaveiy  ceased. 

In  1870,  he  became  interested  in  the  colony  of 
Riverside,  Southern  California,  and  Ms  family 
removed  there  to  reside,  while  he  remaind  in  Wash- 
ing-ton most  of  the  time  to  provide  means  to  build 
up  a  home. 

In  1875,  the  death  of  his  wife  left  him  discour- 
aged in  mind  and  unsettled  in  life  generally.  He 
undertook  to  be  an  agriculturalist,  with  but  poor 
success.  His  weapon  was  the  pen,  and  he  soon 
took  it  up  again. 

In  1877,  he  came  to  San  Francisco,  and  began  a 
career  in  this  city  which  lasted  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  At  times,  his  journalistic  life  took  him 
to  Stockton,  San  Jose,  Eureka,  and  other  places, 
where  in  various  capacities  he  demonstrated  his 
great  abilities  as  a  writer,  speaker,  reporter,  and 
thinker. 

Mr.  Cridge's  attention  was  first  drawn  to  the 
defective  character  of  our  so-called  representative 
system  in  1868,  by  a  lecture  delivered  in  Philadel- 
phia by  United  States  Senator  Buckalew.  Mr. 
Cridge  made  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  sub- 
ject, simplified  it,  and  devoted  the  remainder  of 
his  life  to  it,  becoming  the  world's  foi-emost  advo- 

65 


cate  of  proportional  representation.  He  has  exer- 
cised a  pronounced  influence  over  legislation  in  the 
Australian  colonies  and  Tasmania,  to  him  being 
due  the  impetus  which  the  preferential  vote  has 
gained  in  that  quarter  of  the  world. 

Upon  coming  to  San  Francisco  he  established  a 
voluntaiy  correspondence  bureau  and  agitation 
committee  of  one,  and  year  in  and  year  out  cor- 
responded with  those  interested  in  this  and  other 
reforms  throughout  the  world.  In  proportion  to 
means  and  opportunity,  he  did  more  than  any  one 
else  in  this  country  to  further  proportional  re])re- 
sentation  and  direct  legislation.  ISTothing  damp- 
ened his  ardor;  nothing  could  prevent  him  from 
speaking  and  writing  for  the  ref omi,  ' '  small  in  it- 
self, but  productive  of  great  results,"  as  he  was 
wont  to*  say.  At  times  others  came  forward  to  help 
him,  at  times  they  fell  away,  but  first,  last,  and  all 
the  time,  he  toiled  early  and  late  that  the  world 
might  be  the  better  fitted  for  the  dwelling  of  men. 

He  was  among  the  pioneers  who  adopted  the  doc- 
trines of  Hemy  George.  They  were  what  he  had 
been  looking  for  all  his  life — a  solution  of  the  land 
(juestion — and  he  never  missed  an  opportunity,  in 
public  and  private,  to  teach  the  gospel.  He  ful- 
filled beyond  measure  Croasdale's  definition  of  a 
single  taxer — ''one  who  does  something  for  the 
single  tax." 

In  August,  1897,  he  was  appointed  by  Mayor 
Phelan  as  one  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred 
to  draw  up  a  charter  for  the  government  of  San 
Francisco,  being  later  elected  as  one  of  the  fifteen 
Freeholders  for  the  same  purj^ose.    Here  began  his 


special  work  for  the  initiative  and  referendum,  he 
regarding  the  former  as  the  John  the  Baptist  of 
Ijroportional  representation.  He  succeeded  beyond 
his  expectations,  so  that  the  initiative  was  distinct- 
ly embodied  in  the  New  Charter,  but  for  which 
that  instrument,  with  its  undemocratic,  one-man 
power,  and  other  serious  defects,  would  have  been 
defeated.  To  Mr.  Cridge,  therefore,  more  than  to 
any  other  force,  must  be  given  whatever  credit  is 
due  for  the  adoption  of  the  Charter,  which,  had  all 
the  various  provisions  he  suggested  been  accepted, 
would  to-day  give  us  the  most  advanced  municipal 
government  in  the  United  States. 

He  was  a  true  American — a  .Jeffersonian  Demo- 
crat, an  ardent  believer  in  and  upholder  of  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence — 
and  as  such  he  warmly  opposed  tlie  Administra- 
tion's un-American  policy  in  the  Philippines,  and 
all  his  broad  sympathies  were  with  the  South  Afri- 
can Republics  in  their  heroic  struggle  against  Brit- 
ish aggression. 

In  matters  of  finance  he  was  a  child,  and  was 
frequently  taken  cruel  advantage  of  by  petty  sharp- 
ers and  adventurers,  under  the  guise  of  interest  in 
his  reforms.  But  in  economics,  logic,  and  bedrock 
reasoning  he  was  a  past-master. 

He  leaves  no  fortune  for  lawyers  and  relatives 
to  divide,  only  a  memory  of  good  deeds,  patient 
service,  a  life  of  continual  sacrifice  for  others.  He 
stood  on  a  mountain  and  told  of  the  good  time 
coming,  and  pointed  out  the  pathway  by  which  the 
nations  and  peoples  of  the  earth  could  reach  the 
promised  land.    He  passed  away  full  of  confidence 

67 


that  those  reforms  foT  which  he  sacrificed  and 
toiled  for  decade  after  decade,  would  speedily 
come  to  be  realized. 

He  leaves  one  son,  Alfred  D.  Cridge,  of  Hanford, 
California,  and  a  daughter,  Mrs.  W.  H.  Smith,  of 
I*alo  Alto',  in  whose  sorrow  many  in  this  commun- 
ity and  good  men  and  women  in  every  quarter  of 
the  globe  will  share. 

On  AVednesday  last  he  was  laid  to  rest.  Rev. 
Dr.  Scott  olTficiated  and  delivered  an  eulog>'  wortliy 
of  his  theme. 

^Wn\e  going  to  the  grave,  Mr.  Cridge 's  son,  Al- 
fred Denton,  remarked  to  us:  "I  would  rather 
have  my  father  leave  me  what  he  did,  an  honored 
name,  and  such  a  record,  than  all  of  Tiockefeller 's 
wealth."  Aye;  and  we  would  rather  l^e  Alfred 
Ciidge,  with  a  consciousness  of  the  good  we  know 
he  wrought,  than  be  a  willing  instrument,  though  it 
brought  us  millions,  to  sustain  the  institutions  of 
special  privilege  (which  make  both  millionaires  and 
paupers)  against  which  he  fought,  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  which  alone  can  make  men  free. 

His  gentle  s])irit  is  with  the  God  he  loved  and 
served  by  loving  and  serving  his  fellow  men. 

"VYe  miss  him,  but  do  not  mourn  him.  He  Jived 
a  good,  noble  and  useful  life,  seven  years  beyond 
tlje  allotted  time  of  man.  He  kept  the  faith,  he 
fought  the  fight.  He  did  not  see  the  fi-uition  of 
his  hopes,  but  he  saw  the  light  breaking  and  knew 
that  it  would  soon  be  day.  The  seed  he  planted 
will  expand  and  1iear  fruit  which  the  world  will  en- 
joy.   Such  a  man  never  dies.    He  lives  in  his  works, 


which  are  immortal.  He  lives  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  all  who-  knew  him,  who  revere  his  mem- 
ory.   He  believed — 

There  is  no  death.    The  stars  go  down 
To  rise  upon  some  fairer  shore, 

And  bright  in  heaven's  jeweled  crown, 
They  shine  for  evermore. 

And  ever  near  us,  though  unseen. 
The  dear  immortal  spirits  tread ; 

For  all  the  boundless  universe 
Is  life : — there  are  no  dead. 


muyc^  y^J^m^y)^, 


m 


7  4 


13 


% 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


-i^ttRS 


DEC  6  i94&;;;','jj^^  Qf c.  j 


^A^  9    t949 

FEB  7     1951 
AUG  3     19514 

OCT  2  7  ^^^:<^ , 

JAHfOtaW 


7«l} 


■•  JAN2118I8V„„ 
1990 


Form  L-9 
lOm-3, '39(7752) 


UMIVKKSITY  OF  CALIFORNU 

AT 

1.03  ANGEIaES 

TIBRARY 


L  006  313  516  4 


'■!('■!..    '    •■''/ii::..'' 


:^>-    \r\.|^ 


ilr''^ 


